If John Wick ever existed in a book, he’d be Adam Hayes. The Treadstone Exile is a beast of an action thriller, ramping up badass shootouts and hand-to-hand combat in wonderful detail that will please every single action thriller fan out there. You will not go more than a few pages before Adam Hayes takes down his opponents in spectacularly vivid and gruesome shootouts with a myriad of weaponry ranging from 1911 and Beretta 92fs to HK416 and 12-gauge shotgun. This is an action-fest for hardcore readers.
The Treadstone Exile picks up Adam Hayes, a former Treadstone operative on the run after assassinating a US Senator, living life in the shadows after being declared persona non grata. Trying to curb the bloodlust inside him programmed by the scientists in charge of the Treadstone program, he is helping out an NGO in Africa with medication and supplies. His righteous mission puts him right in the middle of a power play of a private intelligence group, a nuisance that Hayes steps willingly into to save the life of a young woman. As Hayes is trying to survive motorcycle chases, brazen ambushes, and petty street crime, the powers that be in Washington D.C put a bullseye on Hayes to cover up the dark history of Treadstone once and for all, sending a highly trained operative out to do the job. The chaos makes for a fun and amped up read when Hayes is dishing out punishment so frequently with so many different antagonists. That chaos however does not make things murky, as the author does a great job of keeping the narrative easy to understand while pumping up the adrenaline more and more.
The highlight of The Treadstone Exile for me was the action. Shootouts and knife fights filled with great tactical and environmental detail to visualize the scenes properly and easily, you will not tire of Adam Hayes kicking ass. At the same time, Hayes is shown to be very much human, compassionate for his wife and kid who he hasn’t seen in a while, curbing his bloodlust to be more than the lethal killing machine he was molded into, and an older man in a world of violence where those in his line of work are generally younger than him. His interactions with his wife, while limited in this book, are still presented with an emotional layer that lets readers know he is more than a cold-blooded killer. I was rooting for him to get back to his family to a life of tranquility. After the violent events of The Treadstone Resurrection, Hayes is trying to put the genie back in the bottle and take a less violent path in life, though that plan backfires spectacularly. We see Hayes falter with an assassin younger and faster than him, but we also see Hayes go to town on the guy with the experience and the training he has received. With so many close calls, the action feels intense and fun, especially with Hayes’s witty remarks and quips in the face of danger. While Adam Hayes is his own character, fans of the original Robert Ludlum series will be able to feel the nostalgia at times, especially when the voice in Hayes’s head guides him to survival and violent retribution, much like it did for Jason Bourne, a byproduct of the Treadstone program.
I loved the setting of the book. Keeping most of the action in lawless regions of Africa gives Adam Hayes the freedom to wreak havoc without worrying too much about the cops and the law. With such brutal and frequent action, the lawless locale suited the dangerous situations Adam Hayes finds himself in. The locations do span to Washington D.C and Spain, the latter featuring a badass action sequence involving Hayes and his STI Staccato XC. The ending definitely hints at more exotic and exciting locations in the next adventure by Joshua Hood.
The best advice I can give based on my intense and captivating reading experience of this book, one I devoured in a day, is READ IT! It’s an absolute treat for hardcore action thriller fans and it doesn’t miss the aim of being a fun, fast-paced, adventurous, action-packed escape.
