Wednesday 9 February 2022

Review : Hostage - Clare Mackintosh

 


Published By : Sphere
22 June 2021
Copy : Review Purchase Signed Hardback

The Blurb

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

The atmosphere on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class, and the world is watching the landmark journey.

Flight attendant Mina is trying to focus on the passengers, instead of her troubled five-year-old daughter back at home - or the cataclysmic problems in her marriage.

But soon after the plane takes off, Mina receives a chilling anonymous note. Someone wants to make sure the plane never reaches its destination. They're demanding her cooperation . . . and they know exactly how to get it.


The Very Pink Notebook Review


As always I was thrilled to hear Clare Mackintosh had a new book on the publishing horizon and the excitement, and impatience, built quickly as I saw teaser after teaser and overwhelmingly positive responses filtering through social media from those lucky early recipients. As usual I ordered my copy from Clare's local bookshop Awen Meirion so I could get a signed copy.

Spoiler alert - this is another cracking book from Clare so this review is going to be terribly loud and upbeat.  Sorry, not sorry.

The cover immediately sets the scene - an aeroplane soaring in the sky with a house underneath - the two main settings within the book.  The story is told from multiple POV's - the main is the perspective of Mina, wife to Adam, mother to Sophia and one of the lucky Flight Attendants on the inaugural London - Sydney direct flight : Flight 79.  

Then from Adam, husband to Mina, father to Sophia, a Police Officer who at the time of the flight finds himself with his daughter at home.  And finally what I will call 'The Others' - multiple different voices from within the aircraft.  

As the book blurb reveals Mina finds herself in an airborne hijacking situation, of which she gets dramatically drawn into the heart of when she discovers the hijacker is using her family for leverage.  On the ground at home her husband and daughter are in their own precarious situation made worse by the fact that Adam has been hiding his own personal drama.  The narrative switches between husband and wife, both of whom have no idea what is going on with the other - but the main end point for them both is to protect their young adopted daughter - Sophia.

Clare has managed to create an almost physical feeling of claustrophobia, right from the outset you know that the relationship between Mina and Adam has trust issues and then by the use of her locations and two high pressures situations.  It never lets up - as a reader you feel trapped with Mina in the confines of an aircraft and then dark and cold and helpless when on the ground with Adam all the while not really trusting either of them.

The plot unravels itself as the third POV comes into play.  It moves along fast and Clare weaves many of the flight passengers stories in with a clever hand, each character playing a small intricate part but feeling no less researched or structured as the main characters.  I will say, there are no particularly likeable characters and in the past this has put me off of enjoying a book overall.  However, I think because of the situation the characters find themselves in this actually is more realistic and adds to the novel's plausibility .

I always find Clare's writing easy and flowing and this novel is no different.  I loved that you do get a complete explanation of why the, unnamed antagonist, does the things they do and how they managed to get the situation to the point where we join the novel.  This book plot ran the risk of being far fetched, but Clare see's to it that all the potential 'ah but how would this have happened / why would that have happened' questions actually get answered.

Clare Mackintosh is renowned for throwing in a killer plot twist and this book does not disappoint....you do have to wait for it though.

This is a page turning, exhilarating, dark novel that I would highly recommend and as such receives a Very Pink Notebook rating of :