I had seen so much about Hostage online, and this book certainly lived up to all my expectations. I raced through it - gripped from the start, couldn’t put it down, my heart constantly racing. I really gelled with the characters, and it all felt so very real. Too real! What a book - and what an ending! This is now my favourite Clare Mackintosh, to date,

Clare Mackintosh has done it again!! She is the most amazing writer, and she never fails to amaze me with her unique storylines within a mixture of genres.

This book is just so original. It blends genres, and is such a page turner! Just like Mackintosh's other books! I had no idea where this book was going, and kept me guessing right up until the final pages - with the final plot twist taking pace on the very last page! Wow!!

This book defies genre - feel like it could be classed as a thriller as well as horror, and even contemporary fiction at times too. I love how Clare Mackintosh does this.
I read this book all in one sitting, despite the disturbing subject matter I was hooked!
I urge anyone in need of a page-turner to go with this book.

Another cracking thriller, full of suspense and edge of the seat reveals. I really enjoyed this, especially the dual narrative. Hard to say too much as I hate spoilers, but this is a definite recommendation. There was a great sense of tension and some brilliant twists, it's a fast paced read with plenty of food for thought.

Five stars is nowhere near enough to give to this astounding book! I lived, breathed, feared and felt every emotion during my reading of it. I really felt as if I were actually on that plane as one of the passengers as this terrifying journey unfolded. Mina was a very believable protagonist as she was faced with the worst choice any mother could have to make whilst, back at home, her husband and daughter were in danger and yet neither party was able to communicate with the other. As the environmental activists on the plane slowly revealed their identities the pressure mounted and my heart was going nineteen to the dozen! Who exactly were they? which of the passengers were trustworthy and how far would things escalate? This book totally held me in its grip - day and night - until I reached the final page. How on earth Clare does it is a mystery to me but each and every book she writes is positively breath taking and demands that every chore, appointment and plan be put on hold as the reader is drawn into another life and another scenario. Just fabulous! My thanks to Netgalley for a pre-release copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

The world is watching the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney and the atmosphere is charged. Passengers include celebrities, the wealthy and the privileged. Flight attendant Mina is trying to focus on her duties but her mind keeps wandering to her five-year-old daughter and troubled marriage back home.

Shortly after take-off Mina receives a threatening anonymous note placing the lives of everyone onboard in danger. Her daughter will die unless she cooperates. There's another twenty hours until the plane is due to land in Sydney. Mina must make a terrifying choice — the consequences of which will be massive.

Hostage is the first Clare Mackintosh book I've read and I'm pleased to say I found it highly engaging. The story is told from the perspectives of Mina, her husband Adam and various passengers on the flight. Character development is good and the plot is pacey.

The author's familiarity with flight deck controls and aircraft protocol is evidence of the sizeable amount of research that must have taken place. You really do feel part of the drama. I thought the twist in the final chapter was ingenious and such a good conclusion.

Before I finish, a word of warning — make sure you read this book on terra firma and definitely not while flying!

Hostage is the latest release of Clare Mackintosh.

Mina is aboard the inaugural flight that flies directly from London to Sydney. Her life is complicated, and she is trying to balance her life with her adopted child Sophia and her husband, Adam. To keep her sanity, she accepts the crew offer for Flight 79 maiden trip.

Onboard the flight, the excitement is high. The launch of the flight included celebrities, journalists, and people who are waiting to meet their loved ones in Sydney as passengers.

Shortly after the flight takes off, Mina receives a threatening note that puts her at a crossroads. She can either choose her daughter or the 353 passengers on board. Mina’s choice will make a life or death decision.
Mackintosh created a story filled with thrill and adrenaline rush. The book differs from Clare Mackintosh’s earlier books. Adam and Mina are the lead narrators, and it interspersed these with narration from six passengers on the flight.

Adam and Mina’s marriage is going through a rough patch, and with a 5-year-old in the mix, the entire equation is off balance. But Mina’s strength is in her daughter Sophia and the in-between break she gets while traveling as a flight crew member.

Adam is a cop and loves his family, but sometimes love can fall short. He is not happy from within, but it’s much more than just unhappiness.
When Mina receives the letter, she is cruising at 35,000 feet and is isolated from the people. Packed inside the flight, she feels trapped in a box and in no condition to reach her daughter. Mackintosh’s writing creates a perfect atmosphere of tension and claustrophobia. The reader will go through various emotions, from thrill to jaw-dropping.

The readers will have an immersive reading experience. The readers can finish the book in one sitting.

The central theme of the book is climate change and the adverse contribution of the airline industry. But as the author explained in the note to readers, such topics cannot solve through radicalization.
Adam’s POV is sometimes a slow read to read but, the thrill keeps the reader going through until the end.

Mackintosh has impeccable storytelling skills. None of her books will ever disappoint including, Hostage.

Hostage is one of those works of hers which will astound her readers by the end.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little Brown Books, for the copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I cant express how good this book is. The information behind flying a plane and the reminder of taking a flight, not sure i will relax as much next flight, fab storyline and characters and esp loved ending would not of guessed that!!!top marks

Just wow. This is by far Clare's best yet.
Mina has managed to swap shifts so that she can be on the non stop flight to Sydney. She is married to Adam but they are having problems. They also have a daughter Sophia who has issues.
The chapters switch between Mina on the plane and Adam at home.
We also here from some of the passengers on the plane and a little about their home life.
Mina finds a letter that puts her in a difficult position. Should she comply? Or risk losing her daughter.
This is absolutely gripping.
I loved the moral dilema as it makes the reader think what would they do in that situation.
I also liked that we got to know a little about some of the passengers.
I thought the ending was perfect and made me chuckle.
Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Books for the ARC

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this gripping novel

oh my word the stuff of nightmares.....

mina is a flight attendant and her world is about to coming crashing down
during the flight she receives a note saying that as long as she complies her daughter will be safe...

and from then on the flight becomes a living nightmare

could not put this book down...its grips you in such a way that you are going to lose sleep over it

will be keeping an eye out for more of this authors works

I have been very lucky, and read lots of great books so far this year, and I think this book is probably the best one I have read ..It had everything I love, and then some. Great characters a brilliant story that kept me guessing. I did work out a little plot twist, as a reader I am always trying to second guess what might happen, and sometimes I am on the money and other times I am so far away I couldn't hit a barn door with a shovel. After I had managed to work out a tiny bit of the plot, the barn door and shovel came to mind and I had not got a clue, and I loved it. Absolutely brilliant, and kept me page turning like a woman possessed until the very last page. I would be very surprised if this wasn't still my favourite book at the end of the year, it's that good. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could.

Hostage is another excellent thriller from Clare MacKintosh which kept me hooked from the first page until the last one.

The story has many twists and turns with the now customary curve ball at the very end which I did not see coming.

This is one book which definitely lives up to its hype as I “lost” a Sunday evening reading the book with the pages turning at a rapid rate as the story hooked me in.

Definitely recommended.

Plenty of thrills and spills on this flight from London to Sydney.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. A great thriller.

Thank you to Net Galley, Clare Mackintosh and the Little, Brown Book Group UK for this ARC in return for an honest review

It was interesting to read this so soon after Falling - another plane based drama. Mina is a flight attendant and has organised to have herself rostered on World Airways flight 79, the first non-stop London to Sydney flight, all 20 hours of it. Adam is her policeman husband and they have a 5 year old daughter, Sophia. Mina and Adam are having a few problems, hence her desire to be away from home just before Christmas.

Everything goes well to start with on the flight, until it doesn’t. First, Mina finds an epipen which she just knows is Sophia’s. Sophia is allergic to peanuts but what is the epipen doing on the flight, did she accidentally slip it into her bag? Then, a passenger inexplicably dies. The doctor cannot save him. Mina finds a letter addressed to her in his pocket (I think) and her world is forever changed. She is instructed to get one of the pilots out of the cockpit and allow one of the passengers to enter it a short time later. Or her daughter will die. This, then, is a hijack - every air crew’s worst nightmare. What do they want?

Meanwhile Adam is brutally attacked by the shady characters he owes money to. Adam has a gambling problem and is behind in his payments. But worse is to come and things don’t look so good for Adam and Sophia. It all depends on what Mina does on the flight.

I won’t say any more as it will spoil the fun. This was an excellent story with lots of suspense both in the air and back in London. The people who have hijacked the plane are eco-terrorists and their agenda has been hidden even from their foot soldiers many of whom are dotted throughout the plane. Does the plane crash or does it land safely? Do Adam and Sophia survive to be reunited with Mina? I cannot tell you these things but some people do die. This was a well written and plotted story with believable characters, even if they were not all likeable. The fear of the passengers was palpable and the story seemed plausible to me. What would you do if you were Mina and your child’s life was in the balance? How would you live with yourself either way? It is an interesting conundrum. Do read it for yourself. I can recommend this one. I received an advance review copy for free from Netgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed Mackintosh's "I Let You Go", so I was very excited to read her new thriller. "Hostage" is a completely different beast, a page turner I read in one sitting and that kept me entertained for a sunny afternoon. It's nothing groundbreaking though, and while "I Let You Go" really surprised me with that big twist in the middle, "Hostage" was a very predictable read from the start.

I do have to say that I don't usually enjoy thrillers, or any stories really, that take place on airplanes. While the inherent claustrophobia of it works for me, most of them just rely on the very same plot points and ideas, which might be why I found this thriller to be so predictable in the end. There's only the very last chapter of this book that really did surprise me.

Mina is an initially compelling and flawed protagonist. Mackintosh takes time to develop her character and I was invested in her story and what was going to happen to her. The other pov character, her husband Adam, wasn't as interesting to me. Quite frankly, I wasn't really interested in his storyline at all, in the end I only wanted to see their little daughter Sophia safe. Most of the side characters were just kind of there and suffered from a too big cast that didn't let us focus on any indiividual characters. That makes them more or less forgettable. I did like Cesca though!

The plot is fast-paced, taking place on both a hijacked airplane (Mina's story) and back at home where danger is lurking as well (Adam's story). The airplane story is a lot more exciting and it's definitely not the kind of novel you can easily put down once you start reading. The writing is gripping and clear, doesn't let you catch your breath until the end. It still wasn't as suspenseful and cleverly constructed as I expected it to be.
The motives behind the hijacking were interesting at first, though some decisions made by the masterminds of it all didn't really make much sense to me. To be honest, none of it felt really believable which took away from the suspense. Same goes for certain decisions Mina makes that while the book keeps telling me any person would have done the same, I genuinely don't think so. Adam's plot felt tacked on for extra drama, to be honest. Yes, the instigators of the hijacking also targeting the family of the woman they intend to use makes sense in a thriller. The added story of Adam's problems just felt weirdly coincidental and out of place. There were, in general, some subplots that didn't really add anything to the story.

The big plot twist was super disappointing for me personally because I saw it coming the moment a certain character gets introduced. It was so obvious that I genuinely wondered how Mina, or anyone else on the plane, didn't see right through it. There is a moment on the very last pages of "Hostage" that felt like a real gut punch, though, and that's really well done.

I also didn't particularly like how the book uses some very cliched stereotypes (the gamer guy... really?) and did address the anti-muslim racism when it comes to the subject of terrorism especially, yet plays right into it anyway (mildly spoilery: the Ganges-reveal is a. questionable choice, considering). From the way this subject was handled I expected something different and it left me disappointed.
Personally, I also thought the Author's note felt a little condescending, which put a damper on that high after the last page reveal.

In conclusion, this is an okay thriller from a great author that keeps you entertained unless you think about it too much.

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

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.

As far as introductions go this hooked me straight away.

I was fortunate to receive an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review of this book.

I'd also like to point out that I am a member of Clare's Facebook book group so have a soft spot for her! Saying that this is the first full novel I have read of hers.

I am not going to detail the content of the book and concentrate on my thoughts about the writing and my enjoyment of it.

Clare developed the characters fairly quickly and I found them to be balanced with both endearing and warming facets shown alongside parts of the characters that were less admirable attributes.

Mina the main character left me feeling such a sense of comradery, she was put in an impossible situation and I have no idea how I would respond to it.

The book kept up a good pace and had lots of little surprise bombs littered throughout that just kept throwing me at every turn.

Sophie was such a fabulous character and as a child who had different needs her overall wit and level of intelligence for one so you was evident.

I enjoyed every page wanting to find out what would happen next with a desire to make it last longer..

The most amazing last twist which in my opinion is worth reading the book for alone!

I have been lucky enough to read some great books this year so far and then I was given the opportunity to read this ARC of Hostage, thanks to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK and Clare Mackintosh in return for my honest review. I couldn’t wait. This is one of my favourite authors and this was yet another extraordinarily brilliant read. This author knows how to tell a story.

Mina is one of the cabin crew on the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney. The flight will last 20 hours, and Mina has swapped around with somebody to make sure she is on this flight. Married to Adam, a police officer and mum to Sophia she is avoiding her husband because she believes he has had an affair with their former child minder.

The story is told from different points of view and covers all aspects of what has previously happened and the current situation both on board the flight and back home where Adam is looking after Sophia. Incredibly well plotted the story develops from each person’s view and this adds to the tension and drama.
I loved every aspect of this incredibly realistic read and once again the ending was special.
I couldn’t recommend this highly enough, so if you have only one read this year then make it this one.

Wow - I absolutely loved this. It's brilliantly smart, chillingly realistic, extremely addictive, nail-bitingly tense, excitingly fast paced and powerfully emotional (so many adjectives)! I was gripped from the very first to last page, reading long into the night. I've never read the author before but the story telling was vivid with its hour by hour account and well done - the opening made me imagine an entirely different ending and the passenger extracts gave understanding to events unfolding. And, then the actual ending was twist after twist and completely unexpected as well as perfectly apt. Initially I didn't take to Adam, Sophia or Mina (particularly one of her decisions but I guess that's the point of moral dilemmas we never know how we'd react) but the author developed their characters brilliantly, with the dual narrative, until I found myself totally connected them. Like Lisa Jewell blurbs on the cover I too can really see this being made into a blockbuster movie.

Clare Mackintosh's best yet. Like a 70s disaster movie brought thrillingly up to date, with an ingeniously original hook. The fast-paced airport read of the summer.

Clare Mackintosh has done it again! Hostage is a fast-paced, addictive page-turner. Mina is a fight attendant on a very busy flight with over 350 passengers when she received an anonymous note from a passenger threatening the life of her daughter back home if she says anything or doesn't help. Will Mina put the lives of every passenger on board in jeopardy to save her daughter or will she comply? This is one that is filled with tons of twists. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a fresh thriller to keep them hooked.

Mina is working as cabin crew on flight 79; the first non stop 20 hour flight from London to Sydney. She has escaped the difficulties of being a mum to her young adopted and demanding daughter, Sophie, and her crumbling marriage. Although she is trying to keep her mind on work, she can’t help feeling guilty for being away from her daughter.

She is faced with a dilemma following the death of one of the passengers. She can save the lives of the 350 people on board the plane or she can save the lives of her husband and daughter.

Meanwhile her husband and daughter are being held hostage.


Another compulsive thriller from one of my favourite authors and highly recommended!