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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780345434494
ISBN number: 0345434498
Label: Fawcett
Manufacturer: Fawcett
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: 2002-06
Publishing house: Fawcett
Release Date: June 25, 2002
Sale Popularity Level: 52430
Studio: Fawcett
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The bestselling author of Demolition Angel and L.A. Requiem returns with his most intense and intricate thriller yet.
As the Los Angeles Times said, Robert Crais is “a crime writer operating at the top of his game.” His complex heroes and heroines, his mastery of noir atmosphere, and his brilliant, taut plots have catapulted him into the front rank of a new breed of thriller writers. Hostage proves his earlier sucess was no fluke. It’s an unstoppable read.
An ex-con with delusions of grandeur and his tagalong brother unwittingly team up with a psychopath one wrong word away from meltdown. When their late afternoon joyride turns into a random act of violence, they take a family hostage in the affluent bedroom community of Bristo Camino. Enter Chief of Police Jeff Talley, a stressed-out former LAPD SWAT negotiator who is hiding from his past. Plunged back into the high-pressure world that he desperately wants to forget, Talley soon learns that his nightmare has only begun.
The hostages are not who they seem, and the home contains secrets that even L.A.’s most lethal and volatile crime lord, Sonny Benza, fears. As Talley tries to hold himself together and save the people inside, the full weight of Benza’s wrath descends on him, putting the police chief and his own family at risk. Soon, all involved are held hostage by the exigencies of fate and the only one capable of diffusing the standoff is the least stable of them all.
Hostage is a blistering stand-alone thriller with superb characters in crisis, multistranded plotting, and pitch-perfect Southern California sensibility.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Review:
Robert Crais is the real thing: a writer who keeps topping himself. Last year, after eight popular books featuring private eye Elvis Cole (including L.A. Requiem and Voodoo River), he produced Demolition Angel, his very first standalone suspense novel. Its complex, multidimensional hero was a damaged cop haunted by her past failures. It worked in that book, and it works even better in this one.
Jeff Talley, the police chief in a small Southern California town, still has 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 smalltime 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 savor the great writing. Take this passage, from a scene when Talley's face-to-face with the man who's holding his own wife and daughter hostage: Talley ... had stepped into the Zone. It was a place of white noise where emotions reigned and reason was meager. Anger and rage were nonstop 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 belongs in that tier of writers whose novelistic gifts transcend the thriller category--writers like Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and James Lee Burke. Hostage is a breakout. --Jane Adams
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Rated by buyers -
I have become a fan of Elvis Cole. How can you not like a guy with superhero magnets on his refrigerator, business cars that say "the biggest dick in the business" and a name like Elvis.
That said, Hostage is not an Elvis Cole mystery.
It's an interesting book, particularly watching how the Hostage scenario plays out. However, I never really got into the characters.
Also, I believe I found a large flaw. (CAUTION SPOILER COMING) Why was Jeff Talley needed to be subverted by the mob to control the situation if they already had a law officer in place under their control who was in control of the situation.
I do like the the fact that there's more going on in this story than just a man conquering his fears of failing in a hostage situation by having to deal with one.
Even without Elvis, Crais writes a good story and one that you'll enjoy.
Rated by buyers 
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I must be out of the loop - I am a Crais fan but have never seen this book before nor have I seen the movie that other reviewer referred to.
Nevertheless, despite my previous ignorance I found this book to be thoroughly enjoyable. More than that, I found it to be riveting, fascinating and I enjoyed Crais's ability to turn a cops and robber story into something more. James Daniels's brilliant narration is perfect for this text - every character has his own distinct voice. Daniels puts the right edge in his voice, be it the menacing quality of some of the characters or the panicky threats of others as they scream at the hostage negotiators. This is an audiobook done right!
Rated by buyers -
Having read and enjoyed Two Minute Rule and a couple of the Elvis Cole / Joe Pike novels from Crais, he is quickly becoming one of my "must read" authors. While awaiting something new, I have gone back to sample more of his previous works. I was not disappointed with Hostage. It was a great page-turner, nearly impossible to put down. Crais grabs the reader in the very first few minutes and keeps him completed captivated throughout the entire book. The lead character is Jeff Talley, the police chief of a small town in Southern California, where he enjoys the relative peace away from his former position with the Los Angeles police department. The peace, however, is shattered when he is confronted with a hostage situation in his jurisdiction. The action is fast and furious, with plot twists galore. Crais pulls the story forward with strong character development, providing a range of emotions and motivations that spans the character set. Start to finish, this is a great story.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a good story, well written, engaging, page-turner...but why, oh why, must he, Robert Crais, take God's name in vain so often? I mean really, can't we be a little more creative in our writing that to have to use JC or G**da**it? Really disappointed on that front.
Rated by buyers -
I really hate having to harsh on a Robert Crais novel since the majority of his other books are better.
This book takes place all within a 24 hour period when almost everything that could possibly go wrong does. My problem with this book is not in the writing but in the substance. I can generally suspend belief to enjoy a novel but this was just too much.
We've got robbers who pick the wrong mini-mart to rob. And the wrong store owner. And they have the worst getaway car in the world. And they just break down and jump the fence into the house of a mob related accountant. And the accountant just happens to have a safe room with tons of cash. And one of the robbers just happens to be a serial killer. And the chief of police just happens to be a former SWAT negotiator.
Are you out of breath from the number of coincidences in that? I sure am. This novel had screen play stamped all over it. A bummer since Crais brough us Elvis Cole who is an awesome character.
I'm going to go back to my Elvis Cole novels. I hope Crais does too.
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