Hostage [Hardcover]

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

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.

A teenage gang's convenience store robbery goes horribly wrong and when hotly pursued by the police they crash into a house and take the family hostage. A high-tension three way stand-off develops in a gripping thriller certain to win plaudits on the word-of-mouth grapevine. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The new stand-alone mega-seller from the Sunday Times bestselling star of American thriller fiction

When a convenience store robbery goes horribly wrong the teenage gang who perpetrated the crime make a run for it. Hotly pursued by the police they crash into the suburban home of an accountant and take the family hostage. An armed seige ensues. It's the last thing the local sheriff wanted - after all he left the force in L.A. because of the stress. But the gang have chosen the wrong accountant to hold hostage. He works for the mafia and he holds all the local family's financial records. Soon the mob are on the scene. A nightmarish, high-tension three way stand off develops

Robert Crais has written extensively for television; his many credits include Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice. He is the author of eight Elvis Cole novels plus the international bestseller DEMOLITION ANGEL. The latter has been bought for film by the producer of Jerry Maguire.