Elevator Pitch - Linwood Barclay

Description

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, non-stop, to the top. Once there, it stops for a few seconds, and then plummets.

Right to the bottom of the shaft.

It appears to be a horrific, random tragedy. But then, on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And when Wednesday brings yet another high-rise catastrophe, one of the most vertical cities in the world – and the nation’s capital of media, finance, and entertainment – is plunged into chaos.

Clearly, this is anything but random. This is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. And it’s working. Fearing for their lives, thousands of men and women working in offices across the city refuse leave their homes. Commerce has slowed to a trickle. Emergency calls to the top floors of apartment buildings go unanswered.

Who is behind this? What do these deadly acts of sabotage have to do with the fingerless body found on the High Line? Two seasoned New York detectives and a straight-shooting journalist must race against time to find the answers . . .

Review

I have read almost all of Linwood Barclay's novels. Whilst this one did not in the end disappoint I felt it had a very different feel to the other novels. It is difficult when you have loved an author's work so much and then they write something which whilst good is not in the same league as previous books.

It started and ended well but the middle just hung there. There were eventually the usual twists I expect from Linwood, but just not throughout the book. At one point I felt like it was just a normal police procedural thriller. With a lot of back story about the one of the Detectives and also a journalist, some of which added to the story, but a lot of it didn't. When the elevator catastrophes happened, they were quite graphic in their descriptions, along with a scene of crime, which I wasn't expecting.

Some of the plot line I thought was a little unrealistic, especially for New York City, to say what it was would be a spoiler.

Certainly towards the end of the book my pulse was racing as I wondered what the outcome would be. I maybe won't be stepping onto an elevator for a while either.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the ARC to review.

The book is out on 5 September 2019.

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