The Year of the Locust
Terry Hayes
Penguin Random House
Review: Karen Watkins
In his long awaited second novel, elite CIA espionage agent Ridley Kane is on the hunt for a wanted international terrorist.
Known as Abu Muslim al-Tundra, real name Kazinsky, this brutal terrorist was thought to be dead. Not so. Through well-founded intel he has resurfaced and is believed to be leading what in terrorist circles is described as “a spectacular” attack on America through a fanatical terrorist group, the Arms of the Pure. The attack will not only lay waste to most of the world but also transform the human survivors into something drastically different.
Kane is sent to the Denied Access Area no-go zone on the border where Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran meet. He must exfiltrate a man within the area who has vital information about the attack. But the man is brutally killed before Kane can contact him. Aborting the trip, he makes a dramatic escape and returns to his wife, Rebecca and the CIA headquarters in Langley, America.
The first three sections are thrilling, nail-biting and action-packed with well-developed characters. Hayes is a master storyteller providing a vivid sense of place in inaccessible parts of the world.
It’s a page-turning epic techno spy thriller until about three quarters of the way through the 600-plus pages. Not giving away spoilers, Kane continues his search for Kazinsky deep in Russian territory before the terrorist can launch his deadly attack.
The story then makes a dramatic, unexpected and fantastical swerve from a spy story to a different genre. It’s best to let yourself go along for the ride with an open mind because the final part makes the read worthwhile. After all, future conditions of war will be irregular, unconventional, nuclear or a hybrid of any two or all three. It’s clear that Hayes has done much research into future war technologies including surveillance and cloaking.
The story is highly recommended for readers who enjoy the intricacies of spy stories and who don’t mind straying into the realm of the fantastic.
Hayes debut novel, I Am Pilgrim (2013) won the Specsavers National Book Awards: Crime/Thriller Book of the Year 2014. It was shortlisted for Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2014.
