Rating: 
Summary: The fluidity keeps it from being a true fast paced thriller.
Review: A cop, who is haunted by a botched hostage negotiation leaves the force to work in a small town only to be dragged back into a hostage negotiation. That is what this whole book is about.
It starts out well enough, with a few criminals going into a house and holding the family as hostage in order to beat out a murder charge. While not a bad novel, the sentence structure and fluidity tend to be terse and sometimes out of place. Crais also starts adding random complications that sort of pull the book away from the unlikely but possible to the almost absurd.
It's a decent book, but Crais has done so much better.
Rating:
Summary: Too Formulaic
Review: Crais is definitely a good writer, but this out of series book was just too formulaic. I could easily guess everything. Even to the fact it wasn't an ordinary family to be taken hostage (of course not). Too bad, he is capable of better.
Rating: 
Summary: A quick and interesting suspense thriller
Review: I can't say that Hostage is the best suspense novel I've ever read, but it kept me interested and made me want to keep reading. It was an easy read for a boring business trip!
Rating: 
Summary: They Took the Wrong Guy Hostage
Review: Jeff Talley was a front-line negotiator for LAPD's SWAT team, but the stress cost him his marriage, so he resigned and took a a job as Chief of Police in the fictional town of Bristo Camino, a well to do suburban bedroom community of Los Angeles. But his peaceful small town exhistance comes to a screeching hault when three young men rob a mini-mart, then, when the robbery goes haywire, invade a home and take a man and his two children hostage. However the loser bad guys picked the wrong house, because it just so happens that the guy they're holding hostage is the accountant for a Palm Spring mobster. Somehow it seems getting caught by the cops would be preferable to being nabbed by the mob.
This is a thriller that had me up all night long. Robert Crais has developed living, breathing characters here and that is the key to a the kind of story that will have you on pins and needles as you shiver your way through a cold and dark night with a spine-tingling book.
Rating:
Summary: Hostage by Robert Crais--A Slow Starter That Will Captivate
Review: Looking for a non-stop, gripping, realistic page turner from beginning to end? Keep on looking, but if you are interested in an entertaining, ultimately fast-paced thriller to pass an afternoon, this may be your book. Prior to reading Hostage by Robert Crais I had not heard of the author although he has written many other books. This book is written with an unusual narrative that will not appeal to everyone. The Plot-
I won't give much away, but Hostage is set in real time over the span of roughly just 14 hours, excluding a brief prologue and epilogue.
The prologue sets up the main character: Sergeant Jeff Talley, a hostage negotiator for the L.A.P.D. SWAT team. We briefly meet him and learn how he will come to find himself in the suburban setting of the story, living a solitary life, estranged from his family. The clock starts ticking on Hostage as two bumbling brothers and a mysterious co-worker of theirs haphazardly rob a convenience store and find themselves in a chain of events rapidly progressing from a bad idea to a worse situation. It ultimately lands them in the midst of the Smith family home, where father, daughter and son become the title Hostage's of the story. Now Talley must exorcise his personal demons and face another hostage situation that he was certain would elude him in the placid, bedroom community he'd settled into. At this point I thought I could see the writing on the wall for the rest of the plot, and I must say I was mildly annoyed with how predictable this appeared to be. Had I stopped then, I would have missed the best parts of the book. --Will Talley face his fears and return to his profession and his family?
--Who will make it out of the "hostage" situation alive?
--What is the secret of the household patriarch that really throws a wrench in things?
--Who's double-crossing whom? All questions you'll have to read the book to learn the answers to. Suffice it to say, Hostage has a bit more to offer than first impressions would lead you to believe. -----
My Thoughts-
The style of narrative is a bit different in Hostage. It jumps from person to person, sometimes in the midst of a chapter. This will definitely not appeal to everyone, but I think it added to the frenetic pace the author was striving for. I also found the characters to be wholly unappealing. I can't think of one that I cared for, or conversely cared about. Kind of crucial when you're supposed to be enthralled with what will happen to them. I think they could definitely have used some more development. I still gave this an above average recommendation, why? It is a very different read than anything I've come across recently and I did appreciate all the technical aspects of crime fighting, and the police that were covered as well. -----
Objectionable Content-
This is not the book for the immature or sensitive readers. There is considerable cursing. Drug use is discussed and done. There are allusions to both physical abuse of children and sexual innuendo. To top all that off, there are several scenes of graphically detailed violence. It's not something that bothers me given the context of the material, however I am sure it would be offensive to some readers. ------
Recommended-
I do recommend this book but with a cautionary mention of some of the graphic violence and mature subject matter covered in the book. I would not give this book to a reader under the age of 16. Fans of mystery, suspense and popular fiction should find this an entertaining read once it gets going.
Rating:
Summary: An exciting thriller
Review: Robert Crais' "Hostage" is a stand alone thriller that at first glance, didn't seem like it could hold my interest because the action occurs over one night. But Crais does a masterful job of creating enjoyable characters and injecting enough twists to carry the novel through the slow middle parts. The action begins with losers Kevin, Dennis and Mars deciding to rob a convinience store in the suburbs. The robbery goes bad and a man is shot and on the getaway the car breaks down, forcing the thugs to escape through a ritzy neighborhood on foot. They plan to steal a car and make their getaway but the police are on their tail. Before they can escape, the police have them trapped. Dennis, the older brother and the leader, Kevin, the younger brother who really is an okay kid if it weren't for the influence of Dennis, and the loner Mars are all trapped in a house and they hold the Smith family hostage. Jeff Talley, chief of police, is called to the scene. Talley has experience in these situations as a hostage negotiator. One bad experience forced him to quit the SWAT team and caused him to lose his family. Now he has to overcome his fears to ensure the safety of the family inside the house. The novel seems pretty straight forward up to this point when Crais throws in a new plot twist. George Smith, one of the hostages, is an accountant for the Mafia with evidence that would incrimate families in LA and NY. The mafia then takes steps to ensure none of the evidence reaches the police. The story moves back and forth between the point of view of Talley, the mafia, the hostages and Dennis and Kevin. Crais does a great job with the characters of Dennis and Kevin. You really can understand why Dennis has turned to crime and why Kevin is following him. Mars is an intriguing character (almost comical when listening to the audio book) whose motives are much more sinister than they appear. The ending is satisfying and expected. I'll definitely look into more Crais novels.
Rating:
Summary: An exciting thriller
Review: Robert Crais' "Hostage" is a stand alone thriller that at first glance, didn't seem like it could hold my interest because the action occurs over one night. But Crais does a masterful job of creating enjoyable characters and injecting enough twists to carry the novel through the slow middle parts. The action begins with losers Kevin, Dennis and Mars deciding to rob a convinience store in the suburbs. The robbery goes bad and a man is shot and on the getaway the car breaks down, forcing the thugs to escape through a ritzy neighborhood on foot. They plan to steal a car and make their getaway but the police are on their tail. Before they can escape, the police have them trapped. Dennis, the older brother and the leader, Kevin, the younger brother who really is an okay kid if it weren't for the influence of Dennis, and the loner Mars are all trapped in a house and they hold the Smith family hostage. Jeff Talley, chief of police, is called to the scene. Talley has experience in these situations as a hostage negotiator. One bad experience forced him to quit the SWAT team and caused him to lose his family. Now he has to overcome his fears to ensure the safety of the family inside the house. The novel seems pretty straight forward up to this point when Crais throws in a new plot twist. George Smith, one of the hostages, is an accountant for the Mafia with evidence that would incrimate families in LA and NY. The mafia then takes steps to ensure none of the evidence reaches the police. The story moves back and forth between the point of view of Talley, the mafia, the hostages and Dennis and Kevin. Crais does a great job with the characters of Dennis and Kevin. You really can understand why Dennis has turned to crime and why Kevin is following him. Mars is an intriguing character (almost comical when listening to the audio book) whose motives are much more sinister than they appear. The ending is satisfying and expected. I'll definitely look into more Crais novels.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome..Crais' best yet...
Review: This is my fourth Crais' book and by far my favorite. The book is like an orchestra that is tuned beautifully by Crais, the maestro. It is one of the better thrillers you will read. Oh, sure, the concidences are many, but it really does work. The multivoiced narrators work beautifully (even more strongly than Demolition ANgel). The tension builds and the twists don't stop coming. It is mysterious, exciting, and as many of these books are about redemption. I read that this will soon be a movie with BRuce Willis. I'm sure that will be fine but I can't believe the movie will be better than this fantastic book. Crais keeps getting better and better.
Rating:
Summary: Fast, exciting action.
Review: This is the best thriller that I've ever read! Robert Crais has excelled himself with this story of hostage taking and negotiation. Jeff Talley is a former negotiator with LAPD's SWAT team who has retired to a small town as police chief after the mental strain got to him and destroyed his marriage.Three small time crooks robbed and murdered a store owner and fled to a small community to hide out in a private house. Unfortunately for them, they chose a house of a Mafia accountant who was about to hand over very incriminating records to the Mafia chiefs. Ths accountants house contains a safe room, an elaborate security system and also a huge amount of cash which the trio of crooks are determined to take for themselves.The accountant is bludgeoned into a coma before he can identify himself so that the trio have no idea that they have stumbled into a bigger situatiin than they can handle. Talley is once again forced into the role of negotiator, trying to protect the 2 children of the accountant. It's tightly written with the pace never letting up and it's easy to see it as an action movie.
Rating:
Summary: Why did Bruce Willis buy the film rights?
Review: Which is a very legitimate question, since several better hostage negotiation novels have been written in recent years. Such stories are very tricky to write (I know- I've been embroiled in writing one for over four years now) and this is perhaps the reason why fans of this subgenre inevitably have to settle for a trade off- Either they can read a thrilling novel that's badly researched (Deaver's A MAIDEN'S GRAVE) or a serviceable novel that's well-grounded in research. Robert Crais's HOSTAGE falls in the latter category.
We meet Jeff Tally early in the book, the former LAPD SWAT negotiator who, of course, was knocked almost completely out of the life after a hostage standoff went bad. Tally is chief of a small police department on the California coastline in a sleepy town where a car backfiring is assumed to be a car backfiring. Then three youths rob a convenience store in which the owner is accidentally killed (shades of Sandra Brown's horrendous STANDOFF). Two of them panic and drive away, eventually settling in the house of a father of two children who turns out to be an accountant of a mob family. This is an intriguing setup but somehow Crais doesn't fully pull the trigger.
The group dynamic in the household is interesting (Crais rightly doesn't allow for Stockholming, since Mr. Smith is seriously beaten early in the standoff), as is the response by the mob bosses who want to retrieve at all costs two Zip disks in Smith's house, evidence that, according to Crais, could put away virtually all of organized crime on the east coast.
This is where it gets unrealistic. Somehow, the mob is able to infiltrate the staging area that has since been taken over by the Sheriff's department by kidnapping Tally's estranged wife and daughter and sending over fake FBI SWAT agents to enter the house, although even a local cop would know that the barricade situation isn't a federal matter.
But, to Crais's credit, he makes the situation even more unstable by introducing a wildcard into the mix by telling us that one of the three gunmen, Mars Krupcek, is a serial killer. The creation of Mars is a welcome one and his eerie calmness in the face of these desperate circumstances is far creepier than the frantic, frenetic brothers who are his accomplices. One can almost hear Crais piling on the building blocks as he constructed this pretentious novel with one stock motivation and plot device after another (a cache of over two million dollars is found and this is the motivation that Dennis Rooney, the ringleader, supposedly needs to escape the barricade outside).
Overall, however, the ending was unimaginative and predictable and a fairly sharp reader will be able to tell who the crooked cop behind the barricade is dozens of pages before Crais tells us who it is. His language isn't memorable, the characterization merely adequate (Mars notwithstanding) and I'd give this book only one more star than Sandra Brown's STANDOFF, quite possibly the most inept and boring hostage negotiation melodrama ever penned.
Frankly, I think Mr. Willis's money would've been better spent optioning or buying outright the film property of THE STANDOFF, Chuck Hogan's fictionalized account of the Ruby Ridge fiasco.
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