Publication: 5th September 2019 – HQ
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 . . .
Pulsating with tension, Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill readers to the bone.
**********
I am never getting on an elevator ever again. Never. I have never been a huge fan of elevators, but now I am even much less. As one of the characters of the novel said: “Take the stairs.”
New York City is built upward so elevators are a very important part of it. What would happen if you stopped all the elevators in one of the biggest cities in the world from running? Chaos, death, and panic. And Linwood Barclay portrays them perfectly in his new gripping novel, ELEVATOR PITCH. In three days, three elevators disasters cause multiple deaths so Richard Hadley, the city’s mayor, decides to stop all the elevators until they have been checked out. And while the entire city is on hold, an activist group called Flyover is planting bombs in the biggest cities around the United States. Are the two events connected? And how are they linked to the brutal murder of an elevator repairman?
What a rollercoaster of a read! Fast-paced, twisty, and engrossing, this novel made me hold my breath on more than one occasion. Sabotages, terror attacks, political scandals… the author knows how to keep the reader engaged. The story is told from multiple points of views, from the mayor trying to avoid criticism and scandal to the journalist who likes to portray him as the forever bad guy on her newspaper; from the police detective with PTSD who is trying to solve a murder and to prove to his colleague that he can do his job to the young woman who wants to impress her mother. Also, we get a front seat inside the sabotaged elevators and you can almost feel the fear of the people trapped inside. The tension (and my anxiety) during these moments was very high.
Linwood Barclay wrote a claustrophobic, suspenseful, and terrific novel that will surely give me nightmare and, yet, I couldn’t put down!
A huge thank you to Joe and HQ for providing me with a copy of the novel.
Book After Book 