The Demon Crown: Sigma Force Book 13
8.0
Rate It
Book
“Bone-chilling.” –Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “One of the best in the series.”...
thriller
Scotland's First World War
Book
The First World War was the largest and deadliest war the world had ever seen. A century on, it can...
The Seasons of My Mother
8.0
Rate It
Book
In this poetic and inspiring memoir, one of America’s most revered actresses uses the imagery of...
Biography
Mozambique
Book
This new seventh edition of Bradt's Mozambique remains the most established and only standalone...
The Chord Wheel
Music and Entertainment
App
The best-selling book is now an iPhone App at last. ***** THE CHORD WHEEL; The Ultimate Tool for...
The Cockpit (Voyagers #3)
8.0
Rate It
Book
Rafe: I’ve given up my modeling career to work on the other side of the lens. And touring the...
Contemporary MM Romance
Hazel (1853 KP) rated Hostage Three in Books
Dec 17, 2018
<i>Hostage Three</i> is the second literary thriller by Carnegie Shortlisted Nick Lake. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about reading this book after having read Lake’s first literary thriller, <i>In Darkness</i>, which, although well written, was rather hard going and, at times, boring. However I really enjoyed <i>Hostage Three</i>. Maybe it helped having a narrator I could relate to more, or maybe it was because the narrative was not shared between two major different time periods as <i>In Darkness</i> was. Whatever the reason, it was good.
The narrative jumps straight in to something happening in 2008 on the coast of Eyl, Puntland, Somalia. Seventeen-year-old Amy Fields is on a yacht, there are pirates; it appears someone is about to be killed. End of part one. What has happened? What is going to happen? Begin part two, three and a half months earlier. From this moment on Amy narrates what has happened in the lead up to the initial insight given and what happened afterwards. The reader learns more about Amy, her father and his wife, Sarah, who Amy constantly refers to as ‘the stepmother’, which gives an indication of their tense relationship. Throughout the book there are also flashbacks to what happened to Amy’s real mother, a sufferer of severe OCD, and the events that caused Amy to become the rebellious teenager she is portrayed as at the beginning of the novel.
Amy and her family end up travelling the world on a private yacht only to get taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean. To begin with it is clear that the Fields family and yacht crew are the goodies and the pirates the baddies, however Amy begins to develop a complicated, secret relationship with one of the pirates, Farouz. The reader discovers the pirates’ motives, well at least Farouz’s motives, behind the hostage situation. Things begin to look less black and white, less good versus bad. And everything, of course, becomes more complex once romance is thrown into the mix.
<i>Hostage Three</i> is well worth a read. Lake writes really well and keeps the reader engaged. It is as if Amy is talking to the reader the entire time. Once you get used to the unconventional use of punctuation (no speech marks) it will become fast paced and you will be torn between wanting to read it all in one go and wanting to slow down to prevent it from ending too soon!
I Escape: The Great War's Most Remarkable POW
Book
Of all the daring PoW escape stories that have come to light in the last 100 years and immortalized...
Lonely Planet Traveller
Travel and Magazines & Newspapers
App
Need holiday inspiration? Lonely Planet Traveller is packed with ideas, whether you’re after a...
Dino Hunter: Deadly Shores
Games and Entertainment
App
Hunt or be hunted! Embark on the hunting expedition of a lifetime in pursuit of the ultimate game in...