Thank you to Net Galley, the publishers and to Clare for an ARC copy of the exciting new book.

A brilliant book, full of intrigue and suspense. Well-written. A recommended read.

Another jaw dropping book from Clare Mackintosh!

What would you choose? Save your daughter or save the passengers in your care on an inaugural nonstop flight? This is the decision that faces Mina when she starts her journal as a flight attendant with a letter from terrorists together with a photo of her daughter giving her just that dilemma.

The story is told from multiple points of view. Mina, her separated husband, the unidentified leader of the terrorists and latterly by Sophia, adopted 5 year old daughter of Mina and husband Adam.

As well as the terrorism storyline, there is the family struggling to cope with attachment disorder, adoption, gambling addiction and lies. The two are told brilliantly and very articulately and the characters come to life on the page. The issues of climate change are well researched and although the reader will be horrified at the actions of the terrorists they will understand the good intentions the group had at the outset, which were carefully groomed by their leader.

I highly recommend this as a fast paced thrilling book, with a superb plot and cast of characters with a few unexpected and excellent twists at the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a huge fan of the author I was keen to read this book.
The quick chapters and alternating characters keep you enthralled.
I liked the use of Mina to help the hostages and as a character even if I did find her landing the plane a little unbelievable.
Overall an easy to read book with a good storyline and a twist at the end.
Thank you for this copy to read and review

This was so good! Clare is undoubtedly a great writer and Hostage had me gripped from the start. I loved the story.

I love Clare Mackintosh's novels, so couldn't wait to read this one.

As the skies open up this is the perfect holiday read, though maybe not actually while you're on a longhaul flight!

Believable characters, tense storyline- this very visual story could easily be made into a film. Yes, there have been many other hostage thrillers , but with its twisted twist at the end, this is both unputdownable and tense to the final paragraph.

Mina & Adam are the loving but stressed parents of five year old Sophia. They adopted her at a year old but she has attachment issues as well as being extremely bright. Adam often feels left out. Mina is an air stewardess(are they even called that now?) & she gets herself on World Airlines inaugural non stop flight to Sydney. Once in the air she is busy in business class when she finds Sophia epi-pen as well as a note- if she does not follow instructions then harm will come to Sophia. Never mind 'should' what choice could she make?

The story introduces us to passengers on the plane & their story, before all hell breaks loose on board! It also follows Adam & Sophia's experiences on the ground as they too are caught up in events.

This was a real roller coaster of a book that kept me totally involved, as for the ending- well I wasn't expecting that!!! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- it was a cracker!

This is fun! It did need a bit of a prune though; there were parts that were far too slow or drawn out. It gets better as the tension increases nearer the end. Clever interwoven storylines that come together really well. Loved the ending!

Wow! I love Clare Mackintosh’s writing and this did not disappoint! There were many breath-taking moments and plot twists that I did not anticipate – right up to the end! Nothing is quite as it seems in this novel.
Mina is a flight attendant with a complicated home life; she is estranged from her husband and raising her daughter, Sophia, who is Aspergic or similar, which means that life is challenging for them all. It is no wonder that Mina’s job is important to her and the chance to work in a prestigious non-stop 20 hour inaugural flight: London to Sydney, is so appealing.
The novel has a number of narrative voices: Mina’s, Adam’s and a number of passengers – one in particular (Passenger 1G), which keeps you on tenterhooks as a reader. Each passenger has a story to tell and a reason to be on that particularly flight – just like Mina, but underneath their individual stories is a more common goal which Mackintosh slowly reveals.
Adam has an addiction which has led to the breakdown of his marriage to Mina and now threatens his job as a police officer. His relationship with Sophia, their adopted daughter, is spiky and complex because he doesn’t really seem to understand how to handle Sophia’s condition. Mina seems perfect, but also has her own dark secret to hide. Her job as a flight attendant was not her first choice and she lives with the knowledge of failure and letting her parents down. The characters seemed gritty and relatable, though I was a little disappointed by the revelation of Mina’s dark secret and did not feel that this warranted her deep-seated sense of failure that threads throughout the novel.
Once the flight is in the air, Mina has to decide whether to comply with the demands of the hostage takers or try to save her own daughter. The build up to this revelation is perfectly plotted with hints and suggestions that all is not well. You are almost halfway through the book before her decision is revealed.
I do not want to spoil this as a read for anyone reading this review. The stories are well plotted and constructed, so that you do become invested in Adam and Mina’s stories. You will not guess the ending, I am sure as the story is so well woven. I was a little disturbed by the ease at which the hostage situation appears to occur. I know that airport security is high, but wondered whether this ‘fiction’ holds any truth! Perhaps one to avoid if you are already a nervous flyer!

If you are planning a Summer holiday abroad this year DO NOT READ THIS ON THE PLANE! Luckily I raced through this excellent and compelling book ensconced in the safety of an armchair in my own lounge and oh boy it was a real rollercoaster of a read. So if you have a staycation lined up this is the perfect book for you!
Mina is a flight attendant, married to policeman, Adam and they have a 5 year old adopted daughter, Sophia who is quirky but incredibly intelligent , something which becomes more evident as the book progresses. Unfortunately their marriage is on the rocks and Adam has moved out of the family home.
Mina is assigned to fly on the inaugural 20 hour direct flight to Sydney from London, just before Christmas. Whilst on board she is forced to make a terrible choice between the safety of her only child and that of the passengers on Flight 79.
I loved the way the story is told from different points of view, Mina, Adam and some of the passengers and hijackers sitting in different seats of the aeroplane. It is clear that Mina and Adam still have feelings for each other and that the terrorist mastermind on the plane is extremely clever- but who is it?
The characters of Mina and Adam were very well drawn, particularly Mina who has had a traumatic incident in her past that has forced her to give up the only real career she wanted.
The descriptions of the scenes on the flight were really scary as they were so realistic- everyone has flown on a plane and experienced disquiet when there is turbulence. The thought of being on board Flight 79 with all that is going on is therefore all the more terrifying.
I couldn’t put this book down from the moment I started it! It’s a brilliant and at the same time alarming read which includes some great twists!
I could even imagine this as a film- I’m sure it would translate very well to the big screen!
It’s definitely a five star read and highly recommended!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

On an inaugural flight to Australia the 1st nonstop flight from England, flight attendant Mina receives a chilling note giving instructions she must follow in order to keep her 5 year old daughter Sophia safe. What would you do if faced with the dilemma to save hundreds of lives or that of your child?
As the flight travels through the skies things start to go horribly wrong, a passenger dies, a note received, Mina is faced with the difficult decision and the consequences of her actions.
Meanwhile at home, her husband Adam and daughter Sophia face their own terrifying ordeal. How will they survive?
This book kept me gripped from the start as I identified with Mina and could understand her reasons for what follows. It is every mother’s nightmare that someone should harm your child.
Another great read from Clare Mackintosh

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Mina’s life, after splitting up with her husband Adam, consists of two things – caring for her daughter Sophia and her job as an airline flight attendant. Those two things collide when Mina is working on a ground-breaking flight from London to Australia. First of all, it’s odd things, like finding Sophia’s epipen in her own bag, when it should be in Sophia’s schoolbag. Then, when a passenger has a fatal heart attack, Mina finds a photograph of Sophia in his pocket, a photo taken that very morning. And then she finds the note – the one that tells her that she has two choices. Either she lets someone into the cockpit, or her daughter will die…
Trapped in an impossible situation, Mina has to choose between one life or hundreds. And on the ground, Adam and Sophia are under threat in the family home. And when it becomes clear that it is not just the passengers on the airplane who are in danger, but thousands more, Mina has to make a terrifying decision…
This is Clare’s fifth novel (I think) and fourth thriller. I read her third book, Let Me Lie, when it came out and absolutely loved it, a brilliant modern thriller. For no particular reason, I didn’t go back and read her first books, I Let You Go and I See You, but when the NetGalley fairy dangled this under my nose, I wasn’t going to say no.
And I almost completely loved this.
It’s a tense, cinematic thrill-ride of a book, cleverly switching narratives from Mina to Adam, trapped in the basement with their daughter, as we gradually learn the reason behind their split, and also hearing from some of the passengers on the flight, only identified by their seat numbers, some of whom may be part of the grand plan, some of which are just innocent victims.
There are loads of little reveals along the way, situations described, such as Mina’s aborted first flying lesson that become something more later in the day. Admittedly the revelation of said lesson does make one development fairly inevitable, but anyone reading the book would be expecting that regardless.
So, this is a non-stop, page-turning thrill-ride. So why did I say almost?
It’s the epilogue. After growing fond of the central characters, I was expecting one last turn of the screw, but the section at the end after the time jump just didn’t work for me at all. It felt like something out of a different book, almost out of a horror novel. Plenty of reviewers on NetGalley praised it for its shock value, and it’s certainly shocking, but it just felt over-the-top to me and left something of a nasty taste in my mouth. That does show Clare’s skill at making me care for the characters over the course of the book, which is to be admired, but even so…
So, roughly 98% of a brilliant thriller. And I think I’m in a minority about the epilogue, so maybe for you it’ll be 100%,
Hostage is out on 22nd June – tomorrow! – in hardback and ebook from Sphere.

I've read a few Claire Mackintosh novels previously and have enjoyed them. This story is good - a tight plot, lots of action and a chilling ending. A page turner.

For anyone nervous about flying…though this has a happy ending, it will terrify you. A gripping read that combines a number of stories, each of which is intriguing.
Mina is one of our main characters. A flight attendant who had started training to be a pilot. She is married to Adam, a detective, who has been hiding secrets that are finally catching up with him. They have an adopted daughter, Sophia, who is only five when the book begins but who plays a key role in the story.
Alongside these three there are a lot of other characters. The thing that brings them together is the inaugural London to Sydney non-stop flight…
A flight like no other…but not for the reasons the company imagined. With Sophia under threat Mina is coerced into helping a group of eco-terrorists hijack the plane.
What follows is a fairly standard account of the tense situation on the plane, with people making decisions and the impact of those decisions. At the same time, though, we see what is happening on the ground with Adam and Sophia - caught up in this drama - and the thoughts of those involved in the hijack. We know it involves people close to those key characters…but some of them will come as a shock.
Though some might see it as overkill, the resolution of this book comes after the plane is - perhaps as expected - rescued. We find out who was behind the plan and how they have ingratiated themselves into the lives of Mina and her family…when this detail was revealed I wasn’t overly impressed. However, that final section had me rather open-mouthed. It offers a potentially very interesting story and I loved the open-ended nature of it.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Flight attendant Mira is forced to risk her plane when her family is threatened. I found the book’s pacing slow; the danger only surfaces halfway in. Before that we learn about Mira’s strained marriage to her husband Adam and their struggles with adopted child Sophie. But when the action starts, I got invested. I liked the snippets of passengers’ POVs and the relationship dynamics on the plane. The bad guys’ identities and motives are not immediately known so it’s pretty suspenseful. I liked that the book touches on issues like addiction, online radicalisation and climate change. I do wish the ending is more plausible. Overall, an intense and dramatic family thriller!

CW: sexual assault, addiction

Another great book from this author, this quick moving, gritty thriller kept me reading long into the night. A brilliant read,
Great story and characters.

Thank you to Netgalley, Little Brown Book Group and Clare Mackintosh for my arc of Hostage in exchange for an honest review.

Published today!

Celebrities, journalists and business people mingle at the bar, there’s a sense of excitement and exhilaration on board the first none stop flight from London to Sydney and Mina has managed to wrangle herself onto the crew list. But when Mina receives a chilling note from one of the passengers making demands and threatening her with the one thing that would make her comply, things on the plane are about to get bumpy.

Wow. Just wow. I absolutely loved Clare Mackintosh’s previous thrillers so I knew I was in for a treat but this was fantastic. It had me on the edge of my seat, made me feel like I was onboard the plane. It’s one of the first books to have made me cry in a long time too! Seriously nail biting this thriller is one of the best I’ve read for a while. Fantastic characters, a great plot and full of action I zipped through it.

Prior to HOSTAGE, the only book by Clare Mackintosh that I have read is AFTER THE END, an intensely emotional and personal novel. Her latest is a completely different novel, a thriller about an aeroplane hijack, the current terminology is 'high concept' I believe; the books really could not be further apart - at least in plot terms. What they share is the author's stunning ability to craft an absorbing story and her gift for character and relationships.

HOSTAGE is a thrill-ride from start to finish. When Mina swaps shifts with a colleague, so that she can crew the first, historic, non-stop flight from London to Sydney, but, primarily, to escape the pressures of her relationships - with Adam, the husband she believes has cheated, and Sophia, their adopted daughter, precocious and loved but demanding, diagnosed with ‘a sea of acronyms’ - she cannot foresee that hijackers will use those relativity force her to help them take the plane.

The plot alternates between the plane, where Mina finds a note threatening her family should she refuse to aid the hijackers, and her home, where the terrorists follow through on the threat. It is, at times, unbearably tense - can Mina outwit the hijackers, will Adam and Sophia survive - and Clare Mackintosh handles the beats perfectly, ramping up the suspense. If this was all she did, HOSTAGE would still be a remarkable thriller, but it is the characterisation which sets the novel apart. The family relationships are complex, realistic and believable; the terrorists are environmentalists and the author paints them so well that you find yourself sympathising with their aims, questioning the damage that we continue to do to the planet, even as you are repulsed and horrified by their methods.

HOSTAGE is an outstanding work. Thanks to Little Brown, particularly Francesca Banks for the invitation to review the book. Now to the back catalogue…

A very original idea that was executed pretty well. The story kept me interested and it turned out to be a quick and mostly exciting read. I liked the chapters from passenger perspectives. I think that added something extra.
I don’t feel Mina handled the situation she found herself in brilliantly though and I was frustrated by some of her actions (or lack of). I felt like screaming ‘what are you thinking!’ I also feel one thread of Adam’s storyline was not needed. Maybe this was just to add to the page count?
Overall, enjoyable and well written. A very unique premise, however slightly far-fetched in some aspects, in my opinion. Not my favourite Macintosh thriller, but I don’t think her fans will be disappointed. Worth a read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as I have all Clare's books.
I really enjoy stories told from different points of view and this was successfully done during Hostage.
I found the premise of this novel scary and it really made me think what I would do in a similar situation. I really enjoyed following all the sub plots and how these developed.

Absolutely loved this book. The tension kept up all the way through and I think I must've experienced every available emotion from fear, heartbreak to absolute joy at the very clever and unexpected ending. A perfect thriller.