Play Book Tag discussion

A thrilling book of murder, espionage, and terrorism in a post 9/11 world.

Hayes does an unbelievable job of weaving together several story lines that are all converging to a single place in time. He is constantly foreshadowing moments but only tying them in 300 pages later once you have almost forgot about it.

The story starts in the middle of a life. A retired spy who is helping a friend review the crime scene of a perfect murder, but Hayes is able to outline each character in depth with their back story and their motivations while keeping the story moving and thrilling and engaging. These are real people with real histories and reasons for their actions.

The preeminent theme is about how unsafe we really are. Security is an illusion. Defeating the bad guys takes extraordinary skill and resources and a lot of luck so it's just a matter of time before a new and different 9/11 happens.

“A writer called Robert Louis Stevenson once said that ‘sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.”

This is my favorite "spy" novel of all time.

I read this for the first time in 2023-I loved it. I was enthralled with the characters and the extraordinary plot twists that kept popping up.

Joanne wrote: "I read this for the first time in 2023-I loved it. I was enthralled with the characters and the extraordinary plot twists that kept popping up."

I agree. I think it will be in my top 10.

I also liked this one. Read it when it first came out. My memory of it was like falling deep into a rabbit hole. "(f)avorite "spy" novel of all-time," that's high praise!