- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Orion; 1st edition (6 Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752841823
- ISBN-13: 978-0752841823
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.8 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,163,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Hostage
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Robert Crais' Hostage opens with Jeff Talley, the police chief in a small southern California town, still having nightmares about the young hostage who died when he made the wrong call in his previous job as a negotiator for an LAPD SWAT team. Now, three small-time punks go on the run after a grocery store robbery and killing in Talley's town. Soon his deputies have surrounded the house where the inept robbers have taken Walter Smith and his two children hostage. And Talley's back in his worst dream again: until the county sheriff's full-fledged SWAT team arrives and takes over, he has to negotiate for their lives.
Crais keeps the point of view moving from Talley to the punks to the hostages as the situation unfolds in the house and on the ground. Then he ratchets up the dramatic tension: there's something in Walter Smith's house that a ruthless mob boss wants, and he'll sacrifice anyone to get it--which puts Talley's own family in danger. The action speeds to its climax with the velocity of a heat-seeking missile, which makes it almost criminal to slow down long enough to savour the great writing:
Talley... had stepped into the Zone. It was a place of white noise where emotions reigned and reason was meagre. Anger and rage were non-stop tickets; panic was an express. He had been all day coming to this, and here he was: the SWAT guys used to talk about it. You went to the Zone, you lost your edge. You'd lose your career; you'd get yourself killed, or, worse, somebody else.Crais, author of popular books featuring private eye Elvis Cole (including LA Requiem and Voodoo River), belongs in that tier of writers whose novelistic gifts transcend the thriller category--writers such as Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and James Lee Burke. Hostage is a breakout. --Jane Adams, Amazon.com
Review
Robert Crais has unerringly built a considerable reputation as one of the most ambitious and accomplished thriller writers working today. After Demolition Angel, there were many making claims for him as the most impressive of current American writers in the field, and Hostage is likely to add more lustre to his name. When a convenience store robbery goes bloodily wrong, the teenage gang who perpetrated the crime try to make a run for it. After a police pursuit, they crash into the suburban home of an accountant and take his family hostage. The armed siege that follows is very bad news for the local sheriff who left the force in LA because of the stress. But matters are complicated by the fact that the leader of the gang had inadvertently chosen a Mafia employee who is the custodian of all the local families' financial records. And when the Mob joins the scene, a grim three-way stand-off is in the offing. As this synopsis indicates, Crais continues to come up with individual and innovative plots that can appear totally fresh to the reader. That alone marks him out in this era of endless repetition, but he matches his canny plotting with characterisation of a rare order.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Rivetting, a pleasure to read,
By
This review is from: Hostage (Paperback)
I came accross Robert Crais's books about 1 year ago. Since then I have read 9 of his Elvis Cole books, Demolition Angel and now Hostage. I have to say all of them have been a pleasure to read. And Hostage is one, if not his best.Its so good a book that they have now made a movie from it, with Bruce Willis playing the part of Jeff Talley, ex hostage negotiator and SWAT, who due to stress and a failed negotiation has moved from highly charged LA to be a small town police Chief. But a robbery starts a landslide of events that keep you turning page after page after page. Absolutely rivetting. If you havent read a Crais book then this is a great book to make you a fan. But be warned once you start it you will not put it down. Brilliant characterisation, dialogue and plot. It was a pleasure to read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry Elvis!,
By
This review is from: Hostage (Paperback)
I must admit I wasn't sure about bying this book as it didn't feature Elvis Cole, who stars in all the other Crais books that I have read.No need to worry - this is a fantastic read and your heart goes to police chief Talley as he tries to stop his world from falling apart.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hostage,
By
This review is from: Hostage (Paperback)
Crais demonstrates his virtuosity with police work this time working with a SWAT hostage negotiator as a follow on to his bomb disposal expert, Demolition Angel, and a break from his excellent if erratic Elvis Cole series. I think that this a much better book than Demolition Angel, with enough layers of duplicity added to spice up what starts as a simple hostage situation. Once again Crais's hero rises above his own self imposed shortcommings to overcome overwhelming adversity. Crais is always interseting and I cannot wait for him to write more of his Elvis Cole stories, check them out.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
