Hostage

Rating:
Summary: Relentlessly Intense
Review: Robert Crais peels off from his tried and true adventures with Elvis Cole to venture into new territory and he does it with his trademark intensity in Hostage. There are more twists in this book than a rattlesnake with a broken back and the bite of the thing is nearly as deadly. Very few books of late have kept this jaded mystery/horror fan up late at night turning pages. This one did it. Great stuff. Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and get it.

Rating:
Summary: Really Boring!!
Review: This is a REALLY boring book. I have read many of his
books and usually rate them 7 or 8, on a scale of 1 to 10,
with 10 being the best. Not this one....I rated this a 2!

Rating:
Summary: Warning: Intense Increase of Heart Rate May Occur
Review: This book should be tagged with a Surgeon General warning. The intensity of Hostage starts from the very first page and is impossible to put down. Even in he small hours of the morning when I would try to sleep the adreneline I had after reading keep me up and forced me to continue reading. This book is one of Crais' finest. He is truly a master of suspenceful writting.

Rating:
Summary: Crais Can Really Put the Words Together
Review: Hostage is a so-so book from a great crime/thriller writer. This story is extremely well crafted so that each scene is exciting and believable. But Crais got away from his standards and produced a mediocre (for him) book. Many aspects of this plot are common to a huge number of ... TV shows and crummy movies. New hostage ideas are so difficult to come by that I don't understand why prize winning Robert Crais bothered slapping this novel together. Then we get the Mafia involved as the book becomes more and more unbelievable. Characters that are full and complex in the beginning are added to thin and boring ones later. Be sure you read all other Crais books before you bother with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but not Crais' best effort.
Review: I've read all of Crais' books now, having just finished HOSTAGE last night. It's a good read but for those of you who are Crais fans, here's how it compares to all his others.

First, the Elvis Cole books. Great stories, well-developed characters, pretty realistic storylines and a real personality. The smart-assed tone is well played in the whole series, and there are some very funny elements. These books are pure entertainment, and fairly light reading. (BTW, if you like the Elvis Cole's, you'll also go for the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich.)

Then he wrote L.A. Requiem, same Elvis Cole/Joe Pike characters, but a much different tone. Better written, or maybe more seriously written than the rest of the Cole series, and very enjoyable. This one wasn't played for laughs and sarcasm, and it worked. A great read that showed Crais to be a solid writer. He'll be read for many years to come.

Next, Demolition Angel. New main character, not in the wisecracking detective genre, and again, it worked. Very entertaining in a different way than the Cole books. Also a very believable plot. The main character, Carol Starkey, is realistic, alive, and not particularly likable if you were to meet her in real-life. But written in a way that you appreciate how she got to be how she is, and you see aspects in her by the end of the book that let you know she'll maybe get it together eventually. I'm looking forward to the next one with her in it.

Then we get to HOSTAGE. I enjoyed it as well but it's not of the same caliber as the rest of Crais' books. I'd put it in the same serious category as Demolition Angel and L.A. Requiem, and not in the Elvis Cole, smart-assed detective group. I'm going to guess that Crais had a different process for writing this time around. I picture him earlier in his career, crafting his stories by himself, not a lot of professional publishing house help, working until he got them just the way he wanted. This book seems like it was plotted by committee and targeted to be something other than an entertaining read. Maybe a movie or a new series? And believable all the way through? Not this time around. It reads a little like he wrote two separate stories and then forced them together to create one book. The plotline that focuses on Jeff Talley, ex-LAPD hostage negotiator and the 3 small-time punks in a snow-balling out of control situation works. It reads as good as any of his earlier stuff, real and attention- grabbing. The Mafia angle however just seems from out of left field. It would have been a better, more memorable story with that taken out entirely. It is just too far-fetched to fit in with the rest of the novel.

Having said that, I'll tell you that an ordinary Robert Crais book is going to be a better investment of time than almost anyone else's best stuff. Bottom line, read the other Crais's first and you'll add this author to your favorite list. HOSTAGE isn't a disappointment, but it's not his best.

Rating:
Summary: Could not put this one down...
Review: I first picked up this book while sitting around at my sister's house on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I became so engrossed in the story that I could not put it down, even though I was there visiting with family and friends. The interwoven threads of the plot are superbly written, and Crais does a marvelous job of shifting focus from character to character, almost like a movie script (I would love to see this one on the silver screen someday). I had never read any of Crais' novels before, but I certainly would look into reading others in his catalogue.

Character development is very well done, although some of the mobsters are somewhat two-dimensional, as one might expect of that stereotype. The down-to-the-last-detail on the inner workings of hostage negotiation definitely allows the reader to go inside the head of a veteran negotiator who has seen and been involved in one too many situations gone bad.

A very good 'tec novel to read into the wee hours of the night.

Peace Out!

Rating:
Summary: Held hostage by HOSTAGE
Review: Once you start this non-stop thrill ride you won't be able to stop until the final page. Small-town chief of police Jeff Talley is haunted by his past as an LAPD SWAT team negotiator. When a trio of young crooks takes a family hostage as part of a robbery-gone-wrong in his town, Jeff responds, but can't wait for the better-equipped County Sheriff to take over. But then it turns out that the bumbling thieves have taken the wrong family hostage, and suddenly Jeff has a great personal stake in the outcome. That alone could make for a suspenseful page-turner, but the author tightens the screws some more, piling on plot twists that add up to the "perfect storm" of hostage negotiation. We learn just enough about Jeff to understand the challenge he faces and to care whether he proves himself up to the task. The generally excellent writing allows you to envision every scene unfolding as though on a movie screen - and it would make a great summer movie.

Rating:
Summary: HOSTAGE
Review: H opelessly surrounded after holing up in a house
O nly just robbed and killed, they're not very bright but they're desperate
S uspense builds quickly as the situation becomes volatile
T alley is the chief of police and ex-LAPD hostage negotiator
A ll he wanted was a nice quiet retirement.
G rows to an all out action-packed climax.
E xtremely exciting book, continues Crais' high-class work.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't measure up to Crais' earlier works
Review: This police thriller succeeds because of sheer drama and sustained tension, but the characters are not very multi-dimensional. And readers who love the wonderful humor of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike in Crais' other books won't find it here; the characters and style are different in this book. Jeff Talley, the central character, has made himself emotionally numb after failing to save the life of a child hostage. He's separated from his wife and daughter and unable to cross the chasm between them and him. He's created a life in which, because he is so overqualified for his job as a small-town police chief, he can succeed without much effort. This book is about the series of events that forces him to come to terms with his past and his present. The story develops with tremendous reliance on coincidence, luck and the stupidity of the many and various bad guys, and thus is a little predictable. That said, don't let the nit-picking of this review or others stop you from reading "Hostage" if you are a big Crais fan or if you like hardcore police procedurals and suspense thrillers. Despite my complaints, I was disappointed when I finished this book, but only because I wasn't ready for it to end yet. It isn't great literature, but it's a great way to spend the hours it takes to read it.

Rating:
Summary: The Realism Will Hold You Hostage
Review: Jeff Talley, Chief of Police of Bristo Camino, a small suburban community in So. Calif., is confronted with a hostage situation that challenges all of his skills and experience. Talley, an ex- SWAT member and hostage negotiator, is plunged into a nightmare that ultimatly threatens the lives of his wife and daughter.

Robert Crais creates a wide variety of characters with vivid description and realistic dialogue the reader can almost hear. The three young hoodlums that impulsively rob a store and in their escape hole up in a home owned by a man connected to organized crime are genuinely realistic. The feelings of fear and anger they instill in their victims are felt by the reader as well.

The story is fast-paced and full of suspense and thrills that keep the pages turning. What sets Crais's stories apart is his ability to describe the tension the characters feel with a style that puts the reader inside their heads, depicting and experiencing their personalities and thought processes in a variety of situations. Crais has continued to develop his craft to the point where readers eagerly anticipate his next book. Don't pass up this well-written, deeply felt fiction. Its realism will hold you a hostage in its grasp and entertain you.