Review by Brian Lowen read out live on bookshow 28th Mrch 2013
I am so glad to
have found an author where every one of his books is a cracker, and this is no
exception. A tense, absorbing thriller, packed with action.
The scene is set
at the Stanhope Hotel, one of the top hotels in London.
The Manager, Elena
Serenko, has just made a life changing decision to quit her job and start a new
life with her fiance in Australia. Upstairs, several guests feature in the
story: a young women waits for her lover; an American family get ready for a
night out; a sick man contemplates his suicide; a skilled and dangerous killer
is hunting a quarry that has eluded him for far too long.
A bomb is set off
in a train as it pulls into a London station followed by another suicide bomber
who sets his bomb off in the crowd of onlookers. But this is only a diversion
to keep the emergency services occupied while the main action happens at the
hotel as a group of ruthless gunmen burst into the hotel kitchens, shooting
indiscriminately, killing many members of staff, and rounding up hostages.
The gunmen secure
the hotel, booby trap all the doors and herd all the hostages into two groups
in the ballroom and the dining room. Elena is forced to give up her master key
so that the gunmen can search all the hotel rooms for more hostages, several of
whom get shot when they fail to comply with the gunmen’s demands.
Several sub plots
emerge involving the anonymous killer, the sick man and the young women who is
a honey trap for a senior government minister who has some important
information the terrorists are seeking.
DAC Arley Dale is
the senior Police officer put in charge of the hostage crisis at the hotel, but
when her family are kidnapped by other gunmen working with the hotel terrorists
she is put in a terrible heart-stopping situation as the gunmen demand to know
the battle plan of the expected attack by the SAS.
The tension slowly
mounts up to the dramatic finale. Another great thriller from Simon Kernick.
Thoroughly recommended if you enjoy good thrillers.
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