I am a sucker for psychological thrillers and go out of my way to read any I can get my hands on. One of the most memorable in recent years is Clare Mackintosh’s debut, I LET YOU GO, which features one of the best twists I have ever experienced in a novel. Since then, I have been a huge fan of hers, and now she has four global bestsellers to her name.

Mackintosh’s latest release is HOSTAGE, a high-octane thriller that takes place primarily on the inaugural run of a 20-hour non-stop flight from London to Sydney. Trust me, every single minute will provide readers with an increasing amount of unbearable tension and suspense. Mina is a flight attendant who is in the process of separating from her police inspector husband, Adam, as she suspects him of sleeping with their babysitter and other vices. Sophia, their five-year-old adopted daughter, is a true prodigy. Not only is she able to recite from memory the details of every animal at her local zoo, she can spit out explicit facts about every type of plane that her mother has ever worked on.

"HOSTAGE is everything you could possibly want from a psychological thriller and more, proving once again that Clare Mackintosh is a master of this genre."

On the day of the launch of World Airways Flight 79, Mina is in awe of the many special guests and celebrities who will make up the 353 passengers on this journey. They include members of the press, actors, ex-football players, and even the CEO of the airline, Yusuf Dindar. Unfortunately, there are other significant players on this flight who will drive the action, and they have an agenda of their own that will end up threatening the lives of everyone on board and then some. Mackintosh cleverly introduces various passengers with brief chapters describing who they are and how this flight will impact their lives.

The first indication to Mina that something nefarious may be happening is when she finds Sophia’s EpiPen laying on a tray in the plane’s galley. She has no idea how it got there and can only assume she must have taken it absent-mindedly and dropped it there herself.

The strange occurrences do not stop there. A passenger is found dead in his seat, the apparent victim of a heart attack. The only doctor on the flight is too late to do anything for the man, and the crew is forced to place him out of sight of the other passengers. However, Mina is in line for her second big shock when she finds a photo of her daughter on his lifeless body. She rightly freaks out, and readers’ wheels will be turning furiously to figure out what might be happening. It will not take long to get some answers as she finds a note addressed to her that bears this opening line: The following instructions will save your daughter’s life.

The plan is for Mina to get one of the pilots to exit the cockpit and inspect an issue in the restroom. He most likely will be subdued or killed, and Mina will use her code to get one of the terrorists into the cockpit to provide orders to the remaining pilot as to where to divert the plane. Those who are behind the taking of Flight 79 have an agenda that is timely to the current political climate, but I will not reveal it here.

Knowing that this is a Clare Mackintosh novel makes you keep your guard up to the point where you never are certain that the story has ended. This exceedingly clever author has one final surprise for her audience that will hit you like a sledgehammer to the solar plexus, the effects of which will take your breath away and shock you. I particularly liked how she compares her book to Dame Agatha Christie’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS --- where the murder mystery takes place on a train that is stuck in the snow and ice as opposed to an airline flight that is also holding its passengers at bay.

HOSTAGE is everything you could possibly want from a psychological thriller and more, proving once again that Clare Mackintosh is a master of this genre.