This summer has been popular for hostage-focused books. In July, I read and loved Falling by T.J Newman, but when I saw how similar Clare Mackintosh’s Hostage was, I decided to wait a bit to read it. Cleanse my palate with other genres and themes, if you will. I’m happy to say both books blew me away … and also made me re-think booking my post-COVID flight for quite a while! 😉 Yikes!

Clare Mackintosh is one of my auto-read authors and Hostage fits the bill for her signature thriller reads. Told with two points of view – Mina, a flight attendant on an inaugural 20-hour non-stop flight from London to Sydney, and her police detective husband Adam, who is on the ground with their special needs daughter, Sophia. Equal attention is given to both, each with their own suspense and different issues. Mina’s locked room setting on the plane ups the tension and claustrophobic feel for the reader, and I appreciated how Mackintosh includes a bit of background on several of the passengers, giving readers a few suspects for the terrorists. Adam also holds his own in his part of the book. He has his hands full caring for their daughter, as well as dealing with secrets and threats.

Within these two vastly different settings, Mackintosh has created a hard-to-put-down, addictive read that has action, twists, familial angst, and important societal messages. The tension wavers a bit in the middle but then escalates to a fever pitch towards the end so readers should be prepared for this book to take precedence over their lives until they’ve turned the final pages.

Buckle up, my bookish friends, and be prepared to be taken hostage by this gripping, heart-pounding read and its fantastic, twisty ending.

— Laurie P.