The hostage by James Patterson and Robert Gold

Welcome to the new Tribeca Luxury Hotel in London - come for the grand opening and stay for the hostage taking.  The morning was going so well for Jon Roscoe, everything was in place and running smoothly until a masked man grabbed the Chairman of Tribeca Luxury Hotels and made a spectacle of him in front of the crowds gathered outside the hotel.  Now Roscoe has to figure out who the masked mad man is and what he wants - no easy task when he is saddled with the help of the incompetent Inspector Peter Savage.  Savage and Roscoe have never gotten on, and that rivalry and friction could stop them from stopping a rampage through the hotel.  A hotel makes the perfect playground for a murderer, espeically when people are keeping secrets.  

The hostage is part of the new Bookshots series and I have to say that it lived up to it's promise and then some.  The premise for the series is plot driven stories under 150 pages that you can read on the go and not want to put down - displayed rather admirably in the trailer with a man running down the road and doing stunts without putting down his book. The hostage was fast paced and kept me guessing about what was really happening for most of the book - no mean feat for such a compact story.  A lot of Patterson's novels read like a movie script, in the case of Bookshots it is more like an episode from a television series - but very very cleverly written.  

Bookshots has a lot of promise both as a vehicle for shorter stories from one of today's leading authors and his coauthors, but also as a way to encourage people to jump into something that has real substance but doesn't take the time commitment of a full novel.  Some people will definitely struggle with the Bookshots concept - one of my coworkers doesn't like the idea because she likes to settle into a book and take her time.  Me, I loved the idea and had an enjoyable afternoon reading a few of the books in one sitting while I waited for my next full length novel to be available at the local library.  A great concept and it looks like there are many more to come!

If you like this book then try:

• Step on a crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
• Eeny meeny by M.J. Arlidge
• The surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
• Kill switch by Neal Baer and Jonathan Greene
• NYPD Red by James Patterson and Marshall Karp
• Kill me if you can by James Patterson and Marshall Karp
• Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
• Kiss the girls by James Patterson
• The slaughter man by Tony Parsons
• The surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
• One step too far by Tina Seskis
• The postcard killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund
• Vodka doesn't freeze by Leah Giarratano
• The edge of normal by Carla Norton

Reviewed by Brilla