Crime fiction is a saturated market. Every month, hundreds of crime fiction titles are released which only serve to add to an already flooded market. Some of these books get significant marketing spend and publicity, but often it is word of mouth that helps most books succeed. Gorevan’s The Hostage is one such title.
Lindsey O’Reilly is at home, cleaning up after dinner, when she sees armed police swarming over her garden wall. There’s a noise downstairs. A knock on the door. She opens up, but it’s not the police. It’s the man they’re chasing. A stone-cold killer. Now he’s inside…
Like most of his books, The Hostage opens with a bang (not a literal one!) and continues on with breakneck speed. The pace is absolutely incredible and the credit is due to Gorevan for ensuring that the reader doesn’t get distracted for a single moment. When you pick up a Gorevan title, you know that you will be reading it in a single sitting. It does not let allow you to even shift in your seat. You have to devour it in one big gulp.
With this book, Gorevan reminds us why he’s known as a master storyteller and an old hand at writing crime fiction. His characters are wonderfully three-dimensional. These days, nobody wants to read about bland two-dimensional characters that only think of toeing the line and nothing else. People like reading about characters with a dark side and villains with a soft side. Gorevan delivers on this in his books. None of his characters are ever stereotypical. And, of course, he writes it all with his trademark humour – something he’s incredibly popular for. The humour is also what helps his books soar over the competition.
As ever, he manages to evoke his settings beautifully. Although the events in the book roughly take place during night time, the city of Dublin is brought to life magnificently. Interspersed within the narrative are bits and pieces of Irish history especially about the Irish Gardai, enhancing the reader’s knowledge. In crime fiction, it is absolutely essential to have an adequate knowledge of police procedure or else the author risks alienating their readers. Gorevan writes with the assurance of someone with years of experience of police procedure, and does not falter even once. At times, one does wonder whether the events in the book are based on something that the author may have seen happen in real life.
The Hostage is easily an example of an author whose star is on the rise and one who will easily be a favourite at crime writing festivals in the UK. Gripping and compelling with heart stopping action and a relentless pace, The Hostage talks about the what it feels like to be held captive in one’s own home, of being subject to the whims of a madman. Required reading for fans of crime fiction.
The writer is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Durham University. He has studied Creative Writing from Oxford University, Writer’s Bureau UK and Bishopsgate Institute London.