I Am Pilgrim

Screenwriter Hayes’s action-packed debut thriller introduces Scott Murdoch, a burnt-out, upper-echelon spy known as Pilgrim, who is drawn out of retirement when a Middle Eastern terrorist launches a devastating biological attack on the U.S. The voice that British-trained American actor Ragland uses is, on first hearing, surprisingly soft and youthful for a brilliant, world-weary ex-agent. But as the story progresses on a twisty, neatly crafted journey from the U.S. to Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and, eventually, Turkey, this almost-nerdy narration develops a harder, determined edge. There is a particularly grueling, gruesome sequence in which Murdoch is battered, beaten, and waterboarded, nearly to death. Ragland turns the spy’s very human reaction to the torture into a performance piece. An Atria/Emily Bestler hardcover. (May)