NetGalley Top Reviewer

NetGalley Top Reviewer
NetGalley Top Reviewer

Friday, February 16, 2024

The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

 This book is a lot of things -- it's got action, super spy stuff, suspense, a scary apocalyptic future, some cool high-tech gear, and a really evil bad guy. Even though it comes in at nearly 800 pages, it is really hard to put it down.


"We're riders on the storm, that's all we are and can ever hope to be..."


Ridley Walker, AKA Kane, is a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA. He goes into hostile places and does whatever needs done and gets back out again. Hopefully. When the US government gets intelligence that the New Islamic Army of the Pure is about to create a spectacular, Kane is sent to the middle east to prevent a global terrorist event focused on America. The borderlands of Afghanistan, Iran, or Pakistan might be harboring a man who could be the leader of this group. He is known as the Locust. Kane's mission is to prevent this devastating attack. 


The book is divided into 4 parts, each focusing on aspects of Kane's objective and spycraft. The last part takes an unexpected turn that was so fantastical that I was caught completely off guard. I could not put the book down. No spoilers.


I had been waiting for another book by this author since loving his first when I reviewed it back in 2013 and stalked everyone I knew until they read it. This is also good, but in a different way. There are some really great, fully developed characters that elicit all kind of reactions in the reader. The descriptions of the settings and the detail provided about all of the equipment and machinery is amazingly well done. I don't know how much of this is actually real and what is make-believe (well, except for one thing that I will not mention here) but it seems that Mr. Hayes did a ton of research. So, don't wait, grab a copy and dive in. It's quite a story.


Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre -- see above  Spy thriller

No comments:

Post a Comment