Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
The story centres around Mina, a member of cabin crew on this inaugural flight who has recently separated from her husband Adam after she suspected he had an affair with their childminder Katya. Sharing custody of their adopted daughter Sophia, Mina swaps a shift with a colleague to get some breathing space and think about her future. Needless to say, the flight does not go as expected; Mina, passed a note from a stranger finds herself faced with a devastating choice - do as she is instructed or face someone hurting Sophia. Does she save her child or everyone on the plane? Who can she turn to for help? But at least her daughter at home might be safe with her husband Adam. He’s police officer . He does anything he can to protect their child, doesn’t he? But what if he already screwed up and his big secret is about to blow up in his face!
a cop figured out they were in the house, they shot him while he was out front. the other cops came to his rescue and dragged him into the car and to the ambulance There is discussion of adoption and the challenges of raising a difficult child who doesn’t quite fit well in an average school setting. Bottom line this is an exciting experience, not quite as good as Falling in terms of action, but a slight edge with the complexity of the characterization.Is it me or did Sophia escape way too easily? When the fire started in the house I had no idea how Adam and Sophia would escape. But it turned out there was an easy way out?! Why on earth did they not get Sophia out earlier?! When a convenience store robbery takes an ugly turn, the three perpetrators take a family hostage, leaving small town police chief Jeff Talley to sort the mess out. Is Talley, whose life fell apart after a failed hostage situation years earlier, up to the task?
The atmosphere on board the inaugural non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Numerous celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class and journalists will be waiting on the ground to greet the plane. There isn’t much that can be said about the hostage situation without taking away from the reader’s enjoyment. There isn’t a lot of room for character building in a story like this, but Talley works OK as the classic hero-haunted-by-a-tragedy. The hostage takers are well done as being a mixed bag of scared, stupid and crazy, and the various mob guys make serviceable villains. Secondly, I found it exhausting to live inside Mina’s head with the same thoughts/fears/resolve. Honestly, there were times I wanted to kill her myself just to shut her up. But then I considered how I would feel if I were her, and decided I’d be even more annoying so I forgave her. But why do we readers have to hear about it incessantly?Enter Jeff Talley, a former SWAT team negotiator with a troubled past who now just wants to be police chief in a quiet little suburb. This case turns out to be a living nightmare to say the least; frankly, much of the suspense in this book follows from his own anguish as the case takes an awful turn when his own family is threatened by mobsters, who of course don’t want their affairs revealed. While the book ends with a somewhat inexplicable set of final killings, the getting there was so filled with tension we could hardly bear to end each reading session. The clever plot thrills for sure, but the alternating narrators of the story – from the cops, to the villains, to the victims – makes for picturing the story for us in graphic detail; at times we’re nearly as scared as they are. the kid hit the dad on the head, hes unconscious. the third boy, max, theres something wrong with him, psyco. the brother of the girl in the house got her cell phone and managed to make a call to the police but had to hang up
That’s the choice before Mina, a flight attendant. In an attempt to avoid marital conflict and get a break from domestic troubles, Mina volunteers to work the inaugural twenty-hour long-haul flight from London to Sydney. What about the techniques used in your next book, Negotiating Hostage Crises with the New Terrorists by Adam Dolnik and Keith Fitzgerald? Once Mina's flight is underway, she receives a note informing her that if she does not comply and do as she is told, her daughter will pay the price. What is a mother to do? We immediately know that the marriage of Mina and Adam is in big trouble. And it's not going to get better without honesty and listening on both sides but they aren't about to be honest with each other and both seem too far gone to listen to the other. The only thing keeping these two connected at all is their adopted daughter, five year old Sophia. Special thanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.
When we were working out how to do this we copied very heavily from Cialdini’s book. We looked at ways people gain influence with another and it is all about relationship building, earning trust and demonstrating a genuine interest in their issues and concerns. We learned that negotiators needed to come across as being non-threatening and non-judgmental. What I didn't like is the audiobook! The publisher needs more than one narrator if the reader has one voice a.k.a NO VOICE TALENT. She shouldn't be cast for a multiple POVs story. I totally thought this is a LGBTQ couple and Mina calls her partner husband (yea Adam), but no wait...they were trying to have a baby so must be a he. Forget trying to differentiate any of the passengers. I didn't even try. Nine-year-old Sophia sounds just like mum and dad...what da hell...? Mina's marriage to her husband, Adam, has been strained due to his secrets and lies. Their very bright adopted daughter has had attachment issues and a unique mindset. Both parents have felt inadequate and under strain caring for Sophia. Adam is at home caring for Sophia to the best of his ability with the help of a new, young babysitter. He was involved in some of the cases that I worked on, like the Waco Siege. In fact I asked for him to be on my team. He also worked on a case involving the Symbionese Liberation Army. This was the group that had kidnapped the American heiress Patty Hearst. At one point group members were found barricaded in a house in Los Angeles and there was a big shoot-out. The police responded and eventually there was a fire that burned down the place that they were hiding in. Jim was on the scene of that. It was a very dangerous and challenging case.
Meanwhile at home, Adam has his own struggles. He has gotten in over his head with the wrong people and receives a painful and frightening visit. He is told he needs to pay or else. But that is not all, he soon learns that his unpaid debts are the least of his worries. His is facing another threat as well. Hostage tells the story of the world’s first direct flight between London and Sydney, 20 hours in the air with no stops and over 350 passengers and crew on board. The flight is being heralded as the first of the future - what could possibly go wrong? Mina is a flight attendant on an inaugural nonstop flight from London to Sydney. It comes at the perfect time. She and her husband, Adam, are having problems in their marriage. She is not sure what the future holds for them, so this opportunity is just what she needs. Adam, a police officer, will care for their five-year-old daughter, Sophia while Mina is away. Mina is a flight attendant living separated from her police officer husband, Adam. They both have secrets but they have a strong enough relationship that they can amicably share custody of their young daughter in the family home. Mina is part of the flight crew working on a record breaking 20 hour non-stop flight which is the first time for any airline. Soon after the flight takes off, Mina receives an anonymous note from a passenger and it becomes evident there is a scheme on board the flight that Mina is caught in the middle of.
Jim was one of my team leaders. I had a large team of negotiators split between two 12-hour shifts and he was in charge of one of the shifts. As the overall negotiation coordinator, I divided my time between the two teams. I brought Jim in because I thought he would do a great job managing that team, which he did. There were so many brilliant surprises, twists and turns along the way making this a truly unforgettable story. I was constantly evaluating my thoughts on certain characters and felt bad when certain suspicions I had turned out to be entirely misplaced! The final reveal and the final chapter left me speechless! It was so incredibly clever and I just didn’t see it coming! Hostage' is just an incredible read and one I do not think I will ever forget. This is exhilarating, emotional and full of danger and secrets. I loved every word and every twist and turn the book took. I cannot recommend this enough, it is just the perfect read. This is an idea that you also mention in your own book, and there you point out that active listening isn’t just something people can use in a hostage situation, it is just as important in everyday life.
Great Deal 
New Comment