Hostage by Robert Crais is probably the fastest moving book that I've ever read. It is an action/crime genre with more twists and turns that you would never expect to come. Three teens Dennis, Mars, and Kevin messed up a robbery of a minimart and in their escape broke into a rich family's house. The first twist is that the dad of the family is the biggest crime lord in LA. He had been working on a project for someone when the teens broke into his house and knocked him out with the butt of the gun that Dennis was carrying. Jeff Talley, a retired SWAT hostage team leader and current police cheif is called onto the hostage situation. The person that hired the father of the family found out that Jeff Talley was the leading negotiater on the case, had Talley's family kidnapped to hurry Talley up so that the project could get finished. Now, not only is Talley trying to save the family taken Hostage, but his own family. A quote from the book on page twenty-five explains the scene when the police find out where the three teenagers found refuge. "As near as Welch could figure, the people from the red Nissan had jumped the wall into these people's backyard. He suspected that the three suspects were blocks away by now, but he hoped that someone in this house or the other houses on this cul-de-sac had seen them and could provide a direction of flight. When no one answered the door, Welch went to the side gate and called out. When no one responded, he returned to the front door and rang the bell for the third and final time. He was turning away to try the neighbor when the heavy front door opened and a pretty teenaged girl looked out. She was pale. Her eyes were rimmed red. Welch gave his best professional smile. "Miss, I'm Officer Mike Welch. Did you happen to see three young men running through the area?" "No." The red-rimmed eyes filled. Welch watched her eyes blur, watched twin tears roll in slow motion down her cheeks, and knew that they were in the house with her. They were probably standing right on the other side of the door. Mike Welch's heart began to pound. His fingers tingled. "Okay, miss, like I said, I was just checking. You have a good day." He quietly unsnapped the release on his holster and rested his hand on his gun. He shifted his eyes pointedly to the door, then mouthed a silent question, asking if anyone was there. She did not have time to respond. Inside, someone that Mike Welch could not see shouted, "He's going for his gun!" Loud explosions blew through the door and window. Something hit Mike Welch in the chest, knocking him backward. His Kevlar vest stopped the first bullet, but another punched into his belly below the vest, and a third slipped over the top of his vest to lodge high in his chest. He tried to keep his feet under him, but they fell away. The girl screamed, and someone else inside the house screamed, too. Mike Welch found himself flat on his back in the front yard. He sat up, then realized that he'd been shot and fell over again. He heard more shots, but he couldn't get up or duck or run for cover. He pulled his gun and fired toward the house without thinking who he might be hitting. His only thought was to survive. He heard more shots, and screaming, but then he could no longer hold his gun. It was all he could do to hey his shoulder mike. "Officer down. Officer down. Jesus, I've been shot." "Say again? Mike? Mike, what's going on?" Mike Welch stared at the sky, but could not answer. Hostage was a great book that I would reccommend to anyone that likes a book that they cant put down. It is filled with non-stop action and more unexpected twists and turns than any other book that I've ever read.
Dennis Rooney and his brother, Kevin, decide at the spur of the moment to rob a convenience store in Bristo Camino, California, with a new friend who was recently released from prison. What was supposed to be a simple robbery goes terribly wrong and is compounded when they take refuge in a suburban home with the residents on premises. Jeff Talley, the chief of police in this quiet community, is a former LAPD SWAT negotiator who took this job as an escape from his stressful past. Now, he's faced with a deadly situation that calls for him to use all of his former training to get the hostages released unharmed. There were quite a few twists and turns in this story that kept me off balance and completely riveted. So many were not as they appeared and the robbers were unpredictable. Tally is a pretty flawed guy who ends up having a personal stake in the outcome. The dynamics between the robbers add another layer of suspense as each has a separate agenda. I normally am attempting to figure out who the real villains are while reading a mystery/suspense but this time I was just trying to keep up with all the emotional and plot shifts. I couldn't put this audiobook down and looked for excuses to drive so I could listen. This is my first book by Crais and it won't be my last. His writing style works really well with the genre, using an economy of words that effectively tells the story, defines the characters and moves the plot along at a pace that left me breathless. If that's appealing to you, add this book to your shelf.
What do You think about Hostage (2002)?
If our count is correct, the Crais booklist stands at about 16 novels – comprised mostly of his popular Elvis Cole / Joe Pike (PI buddies) series. Three of his books are standalone mystery thrillers, including this one, “Hostage”. As the title implies, after a convenience store robbery goes bad and turns into a murder, the three idiot thugs hide in an expensive suburban house, taking the dad and two kids hostage in the process. The plot thickens considerably when it turns out the father is a accountant for the mob, harboring tons of illicit cash and two sets of books that reveal all about the criminals for whom he toils right there in the house.Enter Jeff Talley, a former SWAT team negotiator with a troubled past who now just wants to be police chief in a quiet little suburb. This case turns out to be a living nightmare to say the least; frankly, much of the suspense in this book follows from his own anguish as the case takes an awful turn when his own family is threatened by mobsters, who of course don’t want their affairs revealed. While the book ends with a somewhat inexplicable set of final killings, the getting there was so filled with tension we could hardly bear to end each reading session. The clever plot thrills for sure, but the alternating narrators of the story – from the cops, to the villains, to the victims – makes for picturing the story for us in graphic detail; at times we’re nearly as scared as they are.Nowhere near as lighthearted as most of the Cole tales, “Hostage” will chill and thrill right to the very end – well done!
—Jerry
This book must have been a particularly good one, because even though I read through it years ago it really has resonated with me and I will always put it up there amongst my favourite thrillers.I can remember it being really tightly written, with some fantastic characters and plot twists. Mars is a brilliant character, very colourful and stands out vividly to me; Jeff is a pretty good anti-hero with a troubled past.I couldn't stop reading it, it became impulsive - and the ending is a good one as well.One tip - the film of this book is atrocious and doesn't even begin to mirror the tightness of the plot. Don't bother watching it (unless you've read the book already and want to see the perfect example of how badly books can be interpreted onto film).
—Gem
Audiobook: What do you get when you mix three men, two of them brothers and the other a psychopath, who decide to rob a convenience store in a sleepy suburban neighborhood; a local chief of police, Jeff Talley, ex-LAPD hostage negotiator trying to recover from a hostage situation that went horribly wrong; and a house where the robbers take refuge just happens to be where a mob accountant lives? A really good story.This book is not part of Crais’ Joe Pike or Elvis Cole series. Very entertaining listen.
—Eric_W
