The Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as able over 3 days

Pages - 381

Publisher - Sphere

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most.

A claustrophobic thriller set over twenty hours on one airplane flight, with the heart-stopping tension of The Last Flight and the wrenching emotional intensity of Room, Hostage takes us on board the inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney.

Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems of her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination. Someone who needs Mina's assistance and who knows exactly how to make her comply.

It's twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours.


My Review

Operator call, prologue and onto the chapters..... Ooft what an opening, we start with a call to the emergency services, one page with the caller and emergency operator dialogue and you are hooked because you NEED TO KNOW! We have short chapters which I mention every time I have them but I LOVE this generally in books and more so when my brain is mush and struggling to keep tabs.

The book flips between Mina (the airhostess), Adam (her husband) and passengers referred to by their seat number within the flight. The book jumps around between the viewpoints and perspectives as things are progressing. Now multiple characters can absolutely be distracting, hard to follow and not everyone's cup of tea. However with so much tension and the plane scenes are over the span of twenty hours you are already heart in your mouth because of the opening call.

The book has so much going on, so many issues intertwined as we know there is a hostage situation but the action going on outside with Mina's husband Adam and their little girl Sophia honestly it has plenty to keep you hooked. Marital issues, parental issues, everything that comes with a hostage/work/flight situation and some other curve balls you aren't expecting because you think it already has so much packed in. I have read one of Mackintosh's books prior to this and have another on the tbrm and will need to bump it up 4/5 for me.

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