by Terry Hayes, 2024, Emily Bestler Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster)

My wife gave me this book for my birthday, and when I saw it I couldn’t wait to read it because I enjoyed his previous book, I am Pilgrim, so much. Let me say it was a bit of a disappointment. It seems that he threw everything he could think of into this book, terrorists, Russians, time travel, the CIA, outer space, romance) and it didn’t seem to make it a better book.

I thought about chance and circumstance after reading I Am Pilgrim and was wondering if he took it a bit too far to the point where I would lose my belief and lose the enjoyment of the book, but I decided that since it was a work of fiction, the author had liberty to stretch it a bit. I think Hayes did take it way too far, and I was constantly shaking my head as I read this book.

Despite my unbelief, the book reads very quickly despite being 787 pages long. Hayes writes short chapters and there is a lot of white space on many of the pages. It is somewhat of a page turner, but the plot is overdone. Maybe he will tone it down a bit when he writes his third book, having looked back on this one and realizing his mistake.