Save hundreds of lives. Or save your child?
You're on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney. It's a landmark journey, and the world is watching.
Shortly after take-off, you receive a chilling anonymous note.
There are people on this plane intent on bringing it down - and you're the key to their plan.
You'd never help them, even if your life depended on it.
But they have your daughter . . . So now you have to choose.
DO YOU SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES? OR THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST?
What did I think?
WOW! What a book! This is one of those books where I want to tell you to stop reading my review and just buy the book now - it's THAT good. So for anyone still with me, I'll try to sum up my thoughts of a book that left me completely speechless (and incredibly tired as I really couldn't put it down).
The moment I opened this book, I knew I was going to be hooked. The prologue is an emergency call transcript that is so chilling it made all of the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. It haunted me throughout the book and I couldn't read fast enough to get to that point but also felt terrified of reaching it.
Mina is in the middle of a marriage breakdown so she signs up to be a flight attendant on the first ever non-stop flight from London to Sydney, even though this means she will be separated from her daughter Sophia for several days. Someone on the plane knows all about Sophia and they're banking on Mina being willing to do anything to keep her safe. Can Mina really sentence hundreds of people to death just to save one life? That's all I'm going to say about the outstanding plot that kept me reading late into the night.
There is a lot going on behind the scenes of Mina's life and I was very intrigued as to how she ended up becoming a flight attendant. Clare Mackintosh very cleverly weaves a story into the main thread that shows we can be physically held hostage but also metaphorically held hostage to our past. This felt like a pearl of wisdom from the Dalai Lama; how often do we hark back to something we wish we'd said or done differently? Let it go! It's holding you hostage.
Claire Mackintosh scoops all the stars as well as all the adjectives in her exceptional new novel. Hostage is breathtaking, jawdropping, awesome, stunning, gripping and terrifying; it's an absolute must read and very highly recommended.
I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; all opinions are my own.
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About the author:
Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of five Sunday Times bestselling novels, including I Let You Go, which was the fastest-selling debut thriller in the year it was released.
Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide, have been New York Times and international bestsellers and have spent a combined total of 64 weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller chart.
Clare spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant and is the founder of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival. She now writes full time and lives in Wales with her husband and their three children.
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