Rating: 
Summary: Two Words - Movie Script
Review: With D. Lehane et al getting 6 figures+ for their scripts - ... -- can't blame the guy. I'll give it a generic "ok." May seem inconsistent with a 3*** rating but I liked it enough to not flip to the end, would recommend to a friend or Crais fan with caveats. Let's hope we get back to Elvis & Joe within the next year.
Rating:
Summary: Bring Back Elvis
Review: I have been reading Crais since 'Stalking the Angel' and have enjoyed each read more than the last. Demolition Angel proved that Crais was not just a one-character author. But if 'Hostage' is the direction of future works he would be well advised to return to Cole and Pike quickly. Longtime Crais fans will surely be disappointed, and not just because this is not an Elvis Cole novel. To me, 'Hostage' is a screen play, not a novel, and a trite one at that. My advise...wait for the next Cole novel.
Rating:
Summary: Cliched Crais
Review: I usually find that Crais dosen't succomb to the inherent cliches that crop up in the mystery genre. However, in "Hostage", Crais suddenly dosen't just slip, he falls. The book starts off promising enough. Three twenty somethings take a family hostage after a bungled robbery. Chief Talley an ex-SWAT team leader leads the negotiation to retrieve the family. Little does he know that "The MOB" has a vested interest in the family that is being held. This is what lost me. The inevitable Mafia cliches ruin what could have been an excellent read. I never for once had any doubt of what the outcome would be.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your best Mr. Crais...
Review: Fans of Robert Crais will be disappointed in this one. I loved all of Robert's previous books. I consider his work a must read. The "Hostage" had too many useless words, I felt like I was riding a yo-yo with all the short character development of the subjects. Hope you do better next time Robert.
Rating: 
Summary: HOSTAGE a riveting must-read
Review: I have been a Robert Crais fan since I first read THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT many years ago. It sounds cliche, but here is an author who really does get better and better with every book he writes. HOSTAGE is the story of an ex-hostage negotiator who needs some space and time to find himself again. No other writer working today has Crais' grasp of tension and intrigue, emotion and sensibility. He is a true master of the genre. HOSTAGE is a 5-star read that you won't be able to put down from the time you see the title page until you hit the last words. Crais is riveting, pouring suspense into every page until you think you too are part of the book, hostage to his spellbinding writing. Crais is also the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole series, a wickedly funny, sharp and moving collection of novels starring an L.A.-based private detective. EVERYTHING he has written is worth it -- here is an author you simply MUST read. For suspense and tightly-strung storylines, there is no better author. Thank you Robert Crais!! And publish the next one soon!!
Rating:
Summary: CRAIS AT HIS BEST - Don't miss it!
Review: Robert Crais used to be one of my favorite authors. After reading "Hostage," he's now my all-time favorite. Nobody does it better than Crais does with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Like Reading A Great Script
Review: Robert Crais ventures again from the familiar world of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, and writes a page turning thriller that will soon be in a cineplex near you. Written with rapid fire dialogue and minimal character description, Crais gets right to the heart of the action with a recovering hostage negotiator attempting to put a rather harrowing failure behind him. But soon he's reluctantly drawn back into his old role and with much more at stake than ever before. Crais is quickly becoming a master at the thriller genre, and I found this to be even more nail biting and suspenseful than his previous novel "Demolition Angel." But it's definitely a plot driven piece, so don't go in expecting in depth character development. It's a fast fun read and will make a great movie, Bruce Willis having secured the rights before it was even published. Still I can't help but hope that his next book will be find him back to the Elvis Cole mysteries. They're still in my opinion his best work.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense!
Review: This is an excellent thriller. Suspense in small town USA, and yes, it will scare you as it could happen to you. This was my first Crais and after this one I'll buy his other books too. Another thriller that I recently enjoyed which deals with Corporate intrigue and is laid out on a broad global scale, is the power thriller "THE CONSULTANT" by Alec Donzi.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Crais gets even better.
Review: This book doesn't even take time to warm up...it is white hot from page one. I started on a Saturday and finished the next evening. "Hostage" ensnares you as a reader...and you cannot stop reading. Neither can you stop guessing who is part of the double and triple crosses that stalk the protagonist( Jeff Talley). It's one crisis after another...each brought to conclusion in a believable fashion. Quick time decision making, who to trust, who to doubt, when to go against the book, when to take the daring chance...carry the experienced former LA SWAT leader thru an intense twenty-four hours. The villains are particularly unlikable...and you know that there are a lot like them out there. These miscreants are very real. Mr. Crais fully develops them, and they are to be feared. Talley gets help from a least likely ally...one of the hostages, a ten year old boy (Thomas) who rises to the occasion. Thomas shows the boundaries one can push in a life and death situation. I cannot say if this is Mr. Crais' finest effort or not. His writing is that good. I have gotten so much pleasure from his body of work, and was thrilled to have a new one by him. I do think it is as good as anything I have read this year. I rank "Hostage" up there with Michael Connelly's "A Darkness More Than Night", Harlan Coben's "Tell No One" and Dennis Lehane's "Mystic River" from this year's releases thus far. This could be a great movie, but don't know if I see Bruce Willis as Jeff Talley. It could just as easily be a case where the book is far better than the movie. In either case I am glad I read the book. I will read it again.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to standard
Review: I've been reading Crais since his first book, and I've been a big fan of his work. Demolition Angel was a fine book. By any yardstick, Hostage does not show Crais at his best. And I can only hope that the success of this book will prompt readers new to his work to read the early ones in order to see what the author can do when he really puts everything he's got into a book. Hostage suffers from overplotting and undercharacterization. There are so many bad guys, and so many cops, that they swarm the book like an anthill and one almost needs a playbill to keep track of everyone. Particularly bothersome is the depiction of young Thomas from his older sister's point of view--as a weird, even twisted fat boy with some serious peculiarities. Because Crais doesn't offer us any other viewpoint of this child, when he suddenly becomes this clever, imaginative child slithering through the crawlspaces of the house like one of Harry Potter's friends, it's very hard for the reader to believe that this is the same child who, at the outset, was ascribed creepy, voyeuristic tendencies that go far beyond the normal range of an older sister's disgust. Sometimes a writer will fall hostage to an idea and run with it, which is fine. But when a writer relies on technical ability to get from point A to point Z without taking the time to go back carefully over the work and invest the characters with depth, what results is less than the best. Yes, the narrative gallops along. But the hostage-takers are disposed of w-a-y too easily; the characters of Marion and Mars are not believable. Neither one of them is fully fleshed, neither one of them behaves in any viable fashion, even for psychopaths. So what you have here is a thin broth with too many killers, one too-good guy (it's easy to see Bruce or Mel grabbing an option on this book for their next big bucks action flick) and a sense of disappointment at the end because so much has been promised, but nowhere near enough has been delivered. I will buy Crais' next book in the hope that he's back on form and writing whole-heartedly, with insight and conviction, as he has so many times before.
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