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8th out of 33 books
—
2 voters
Hostage
by
Robert Crais
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 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 be...more
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
September 5th 2002
by Orion Paperbacks
(first published January 1st 2001)
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See what happens when you don’t lock your front door?
Three young lowlifes rob a convenience store, and they end up running into a house where they take a father and his two children hostage. This brings up a lot of bad memories for the local police chief, Jeff Talley. Talley used to be a LAPD hostage negotiator, but quit after a particularly bad day at the office. The job on a small town police department was supposed to be a quiet way for him to try and get his life back together, but the situa...more
Three young lowlifes rob a convenience store, and they end up running into a house where they take a father and his two children hostage. This brings up a lot of bad memories for the local police chief, Jeff Talley. Talley used to be a LAPD hostage negotiator, but quit after a particularly bad day at the office. The job on a small town police department was supposed to be a quiet way for him to try and get his life back together, but the situa...more
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Genre: Crime/thriller[return]Setting: Californian suburb, USA[return]No. of pages: 385[return]Part of a series: no[return][return]This is a standalone crime thriller from author Robert Crais, who has been delighting fans for years with many books featuring his detective duo of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike.[return][return]This book follows Jeff Talley, an ex SWAT and hostage negotiator, who after a boy dies on his watch decides to take the sleepy backwater job of police chief in a quiet Californian su...more
Not my usual type of read. Crime thriller, not against it as a genre but not really my thing. But it was there on the shelf (where I was visiting) and so I read it.
So: Excellent pacing and suspense. Fair characterization. Nicely done with the POV switches. Ending neatly tied up. Best: The negotiation scenes on the phone were really good, I took a short class on mediation once and it fit in well with what I learned, but even more advanced; it seemed very realistic to me at least.
Some things annoy...more
So: Excellent pacing and suspense. Fair characterization. Nicely done with the POV switches. Ending neatly tied up. Best: The negotiation scenes on the phone were really good, I took a short class on mediation once and it fit in well with what I learned, but even more advanced; it seemed very realistic to me at least.
Some things annoy...more
This book was very fun, and interesting to read! I usually get bored with books fast, but this book was different from all the other ones i have read before. It was basically about three guys who just got released from prison and broke into a families house of three. The Father, the daughter Jennifer, and the son, Thomas. A cop named Jeff Talley needs to help free this family before anything goes wrong. Many things do go wrong in the end. The house gets set on fire, there are security cameras in...more
I listened to this book on one of those cool, new Playaways you can check out at the public library. Does that make it cheating to put it on my goodreads? I decided to count it since I put books that Tom reads aloud to the family on my goodreads.
This book was very suspenseful. It is about 3 dumb kids who rob a convenient store and then in the process of trying to hide from the police, invade a private residence and take the family hostage. What the kids don't know is that they have invaded the...more
This book was very suspenseful. It is about 3 dumb kids who rob a convenient store and then in the process of trying to hide from the police, invade a private residence and take the family hostage. What the kids don't know is that they have invaded the...more
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This was the last Crais book I can find in my sad little small-time library (sniff, sniff.) Too bad it didn't contain Elvis and Joe (love those guys) but it was still a very emotionally gripping, fast-breaking story, with realistic multi-dimensional character portrayals, as well as an intriguing, smart plot and thrilling action. I would have given it 5-stars--until the ending. I just didn't get the final shoot out. I even went back and re-read the final 50 pages to see if I missed something impo...more
Robert Crais- Hostage (Ballantine Books 2005) 3.25 Stars
After a convenience-store robbery goes wrong, the clerk is dead and the police are chasing down three men. The criminals run to a quiet suburban area of Los Angeles and break into the home of a man living with his two kids. Holding the family hostage the three hoped to escape the police and ultimately prison. Jeff Talley is the Chief of Police and he used to be a hostage negotiator for the LAPD SWAT. Now he must try to reason with these thr...more
After a convenience-store robbery goes wrong, the clerk is dead and the police are chasing down three men. The criminals run to a quiet suburban area of Los Angeles and break into the home of a man living with his two kids. Holding the family hostage the three hoped to escape the police and ultimately prison. Jeff Talley is the Chief of Police and he used to be a hostage negotiator for the LAPD SWAT. Now he must try to reason with these thr...more
I would likely go 3.5 stars if that were an option, but alas good reads continues to be a little to confined in thier ranking syastem. This was a pretty good stand alone novel by Crais, but no where near his best in my personal experience. It was also just a little to elaborate, and farfetched to get a higher ranking.
The story starts out very cool with a former hostage negotiator, who has never gotten over feeling to blame for the death in a hostage crisis situation he managed. So he leaves the...more
The story starts out very cool with a former hostage negotiator, who has never gotten over feeling to blame for the death in a hostage crisis situation he managed. So he leaves the...more
Pretty good. It is an older one and not my usual interest, but my son recommended it. He is a big reader, too. Our taste in books differ quite a bit, but we also have a fair amount of common interests. It is always enjoyable to venture into different subject matters, and admittedly, I enjoyed this one. The story was short, almost predictable, and a quick, easy read. Good cop, bad cop, mob members, and of course the hostages of innocent others whose lives connected in the familiar storyline made...more
Hostage is about three young men who rob a convenience store and kill the owner. Then while trying to hide from the police they invade a private residence and take the family hostage. What they don't know is that they have invaded the home of the accountant for a big organized crime boss.
This situation brings up a lot of bad memories for the local police chief, Jeff Talley. Talley used to be a LAPD hostage negotiator, but quit after a really terrible hostage situation. The job on a small town p...more
This situation brings up a lot of bad memories for the local police chief, Jeff Talley. Talley used to be a LAPD hostage negotiator, but quit after a really terrible hostage situation. The job on a small town p...more
If our count is correct, the Crais booklist stands at about 16 novels – comprised mostly of his popular Elvis Cole / Joe Pike (PI buddies) series. Three of his books are standalone mystery thrillers, including this one, “Hostage”. As the title implies, after a convenience store robbery goes bad and turns into a murder, the three idiot thugs hide in an expensive suburban house, taking the dad and two kids hostage in the process. The plot thickens considerably when it turns out the father is a acc...more
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Crais writes tight plots and except for the ending play out, the drama came thick and fast.
My partner thinks the world of his novels, and probably has read them all. But you know, they're like Chinese food and you come up rather empty after you've closed the book for the last time. Its' cinema storytelling of the sort that you'd get from Bruce Willis who stared in the film made from this novel. The novel is much better but it's still a Bruce Willis story -- one man against the odds with the live...more
My partner thinks the world of his novels, and probably has read them all. But you know, they're like Chinese food and you come up rather empty after you've closed the book for the last time. Its' cinema storytelling of the sort that you'd get from Bruce Willis who stared in the film made from this novel. The novel is much better but it's still a Bruce Willis story -- one man against the odds with the live...more
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Robert Crais has become one of my favourite authors. His Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels are always enjoyable. Hostage is a standalone novel featuring a former LA SWAT team member and hostage negotiator Jeff Talley. Burned by a hostage negotiation during which a young hostage died, Talley takes a job as a small town sheriff. He becomes involved in a very complicated hostage negotiation when three small time crooks fleeing a robbery gone bad invade the home of an accountant for the mob and take him an...more
This is the one and only book I have read by this author but based on this I'm not sure I would be prepared to offer a second chance. I found it took me a long time to read despite me usually finishing a book in a day or two. I just couldn't get into it at all! I found it boring, dragged out and a bit of an anti climax none of it really made a great deal of sense!
Why get to chief of police if you already have the Sheriff on board? it seemed pointless when the chief had left the scene and your b...more
Why get to chief of police if you already have the Sheriff on board? it seemed pointless when the chief had left the scene and your b...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
"Hostage" is the second stand alone novel by Robert Crais, following "Demolition Angel". It is a bit of a departure. It is similar to "Angel" in that in both book, the protagonists are struggling to come to terms with a past event. However, beyond that, "Hostage" is a flat-out thriller that doesn't have the more deliberate pace of the Elvis Cole novels. There is not an elaborately plotted mystery to unravel. Instead, there is a situation that presents itself right at the beginning of the book, a...more
WOW!
I must be out of the loop - I am a Crais fan but have never seen this book before nor was I aware that it had been made into movie until I wrote this review.
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. Dani...more
I must be out of the loop - I am a Crais fan but have never seen this book before nor was I aware that it had been made into movie until I wrote this review.
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. Dani...more
Just a top-flight entry of a one-off book by Robert Crais, who has no equal for excitement in the police procedural genre. Set in southern California, Jeff Talley was a member of the SWAT team for the L.A Police Department, then a hostage negotiator. Burned out, traumatized by his last, unsuccessful case, Talley resigns from LAPD and takes up the job of police chief for a 14 member department in a small town in the Santa Clarita Valley. Nothing ever happens there, which is exactly what Talley wa...more
I actually found this book in a hostel in London. I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. I don't know if it was because it was the end of my trip and I was tired of walking or if it was really that good. It kept my attention if anything.
When a convenience store robbery takes an ugly turn, the three perpetrators take a family hostage, leaving small town police chief Jeff Talley to sort the mess out. Is Talley, whose life fell apart after a failed hostage situation years earlier, up to the task?
Much like with Demolition Angel, I have to admit that I was skeptical about Hostage, one of Robert Crais' standalone books. Like with Demolition Angel, I had nothing to worry about.
Hostage is the tale of several hostage situations. The Sm...more
Much like with Demolition Angel, I have to admit that I was skeptical about Hostage, one of Robert Crais' standalone books. Like with Demolition Angel, I had nothing to worry about.
Hostage is the tale of several hostage situations. The Sm...more
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Dennis Rooney and his brother, Kevin, decide at the spur of the moment to rob a convenience store in Bristo Camino, California, with a new friend who was recently released from prison. What was supposed to be a simple robbery goes terribly wrong and is compounded when they take refuge in a suburban home with the residents on premises. Jeff Talley, the chief of police in this quiet community, is a former LAPD SWAT negotiator who took this job as an escape from his stressful past. Now, he's faced...more
A brilliant thriller - a good page-turner. This is one of his stand-alone novels. Great suspense and very good plot.
Back Cover Blurb:
Jeff Talley left his high-stress job with the LAPD where he failed to prevent a man from killing his family and then himself. Talley takes the chief-of-police job in a sleepy, affluent suburb, but he is soon plunged back into the high-pressure world he left behind when three young men, fleeing a robbery, burst into a home and take the family hostage.
For Talley, the...more
Back Cover Blurb:
Jeff Talley left his high-stress job with the LAPD where he failed to prevent a man from killing his family and then himself. Talley takes the chief-of-police job in a sleepy, affluent suburb, but he is soon plunged back into the high-pressure world he left behind when three young men, fleeing a robbery, burst into a home and take the family hostage.
For Talley, the...more
A stand alone novel (2001) from Robert Crais - 4 stars. Jeff Talley, the Sheriff of Bristo Camino, is a former LAPD SWAT officer and hostage negotiator is called on to use all his negotiating skills when three small time criminals take a local family hostage during an escape attempt after robbing the local convenience store and murdering the owner. As the hours pass, Sheriff Talley discovers that one of the hostage victims is a mafia bookkeeper and his own family has been kidnapped to force him...more
It's been a few hectic weeks but I remember this being a page turner!!!!
I highly recommend it!!
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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...more
I highly recommend it!!
x
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...more
This book must have been a particularly good one, because even though I read through it years ago it really has resonated with me and I will always put it up there amongst my favourite thrillers.
I can remember it being really tightly written, with some fantastic characters and plot twists. Mars is a brilliant character, very colourful and stands out vividly to me; Jeff is a pretty good anti-hero with a troubled past.
I couldn't stop reading it, it became impulsive - and the ending is a good one a...more
I can remember it being really tightly written, with some fantastic characters and plot twists. Mars is a brilliant character, very colourful and stands out vividly to me; Jeff is a pretty good anti-hero with a troubled past.
I couldn't stop reading it, it became impulsive - and the ending is a good one a...more
This is Crais' second stand alone novel, and the second one I've read. Again, I didn't like it as much as I generally enjoy the Cole / Pike novels (probably due to lack of humor), but Hostage was definitely a page turner.
I think the thing that really drove the plot was the short time frame of the novel. The events transpire over about a 14 hour period. The characters were all believable, and I thought it was a good story. The conclusion was a bit of a confusion. Didn't see it coming, and don't...more
I think the thing that really drove the plot was the short time frame of the novel. The events transpire over about a 14 hour period. The characters were all believable, and I thought it was a good story. The conclusion was a bit of a confusion. Didn't see it coming, and don't...more
I have now read all of Robert Crais' books and I'm sad about that. This was not part of the Elvis Cole series, but rather a stand alone novel.
It was excellent, full of suspense, with many twists and turns. The book's main character was part of a city SWAT team and then a hostage negotiator. He burns out, and moves to suburbia as a police chief, leaving his old life behind him. It's been 2 years, and although he is still not a man at peace with himself and his choices, it is a much more peaceful...more
It was excellent, full of suspense, with many twists and turns. The book's main character was part of a city SWAT team and then a hostage negotiator. He burns out, and moves to suburbia as a police chief, leaving his old life behind him. It's been 2 years, and although he is still not a man at peace with himself and his choices, it is a much more peaceful...more
My sweetheart suggested I read Robert Crais because he had gotten hooked on the Pike and Cole series. "Hostage' isn't a series book, and while it was a well-written thriller, it was not to my taste. In fact, this is the first book in a long while that has given me bad dreams. I guess that's a credit to the quality of the writing, but not a goal I wanted to attain! The main problem was that I didn't really like any of the characters. If I had found the main character truly sympathetic, I might ha...more
Exciting, with a good pace, suspenseful and gripping: all good things that would usually have me rating a novel at least a four if not a five. And I would have given Hostage a four, too, if it were not for the final shoot 'em out. I had originally picked up the novel because I was confused by the same action sequence in the film (and yes, the book was better than the film). But the novel didn't help on that score. Hence the three. Crais is always good stuff, I just couldn't get my mind around th...more
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Robert Crais is the author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels. A native of Louisiana, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in a blue collar family of oil refinery workers and police officers. He purchased a secondhand paperback of Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister when he was fifteen, which inspired his lifelong love of writing, Los Angeles, and the literature of crime fiction....more
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