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Hostage (2001)

by Robert Crais

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,2472616,729 (3.68)21
Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: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 success was no fluke. Its 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 Benzas 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.
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» See also 21 mentions

English (24)  Dutch (1)  All languages (25)
Showing 1-5 of 24 (next | show all)
Pretty run of the mill. ( )
  kgabriel | Oct 11, 2024 |
A fast paced crime thriller from excellent author Robert Crais. I love his Elvis Cole/Joe Pike stuff and this standalone held its own! Interestingly written from the point of view of many of the story's "big players". You never really know who's on what side and how everything will play out, which makes it a hard
to put down novel. Crais is probably one of my favorite authors out there with Lee Child and Nelson DeMille. ( )
  MrMet | Apr 28, 2023 |
This is a fast-paced page-turner with the suspense and action. Honestly, I can't tell which was better: the book or the movie (although the movie was different, yet the same basic premise). The interesting thing is that the tough-guy protagonist, Talley, has such a heart, that Crais has him tearing in a couple scenes in fear thinking of his wife and daughter and his conundrum, whether to save his family at the expense of another's or sacrifice them for the others.

First time I've read Crais and Hostage is one of the best entertaining reads!

Fair warning: this book contains offensive language. ( )
  atdCross | Nov 21, 2021 |
No Joe Pike or Elvis Cole in this Detective novel. 3 crazies take over a house after a robbery killing. They picked the house of a major mobster group. ( )
  pgabj | Jun 22, 2021 |
This is the second Crais standalone novel. He writes a very popular series that I've never warmed up to but his non-series work grabs me. Like this one. His stress-filled SWAT team work for the LAPD turned Jeff Talley into a burned out shell of a man. He takes a job in a small, quiet town as the chief of a tiny police department where a disaster brews that rivals the situations that burned him out originally. A lame-brain and his brother along with a psychopath end up taking a family hostage in Talley's patch. The story ends up being one of those you really can't put down. ( )
  susandennis | Jun 5, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 24 (next | show all)
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To Frank, Toni, Gina, Chris, and Norma;
And to Jack Hughes, who enriched our lives.
For twenty years of friendship and laughter, tacky though it may be.
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Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: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 success was no fluke. Its 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 Benzas 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.

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