With a plot to make your heart lurch as quickly as the deadly elevators it features, Linwood Barclay’s latest thrill ride is an unstoppable juggernaut of terror and suspense. Fleshing out a brilliant premise with credible characters and twists aplenty, Elevator Pitch takes crime fiction to a whole new level.
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.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780008332037
Number of pages: 400
Weight: 340 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 32 mm
PRAISE FOR ELEVATOR PITCH: 'You should read ELEVATOR PITCH by Linwood Barclay as soon as possible. It's one hell of a suspense novel' STEPHEN KING ‘This novel moves as fast as a falling elevator and hits with just as much force. Linwood Barclay is a stone cold pro and ELEVATOR PITCH is a shameless good time’ JOE HILL ‘A great cast of characters, tension, humour and a thrilling ending; this book takes Linwood to new heights!’ MARK EDWARDS ‘Linwood Barclay presses all the right buttons. Rush out and buy this book, but make sure you take the stairs’ MICHAEL ROBOTHAM ‘One of the finest thriller writers in the world at the very top of his game. You will not put this book down. You will not want to sleep. And you will certainly not want to get in a lift again’ MARK BILLINGHAM ‘Best known for noirish suburban tales, Barclay manages the switch here to metropolitan mayhem with aplomb, juggling venal big-city politics, far-right terrorism, hubristic architecture and the co-option of the media with the same confidence he brings to orchestrating his sizeable ensemble … it has all the makings of a superior disaster movie’ SUNDAY TIMES, Thriller of the Month ‘Ought to be sponsored by the Department of Health as it will make most readers take the stairs instead of the lift … As always, Linwood Barclay tells his story with an appealing combination of darkness and warmth’ SUNDAY EXPRESS ‘Linwood Barclay’s new-found sardonicism brings out the humour that always lies within horror … the twists keep coming – but it is the unexpected comedy that keeps you reading’ THE TIMES ‘The plot is crammed with even more narrative twists than Barclay usually serves up … it is delivered with considerable acumen’ FINANCIAL TIMES ‘Genius … but terrifying’ THE SUN ‘A superior thriller’ SUNDAY TIMES ‘Grabbed me from the very first page. Riveting and heart-pounding’ MICHELE CAMPBELL
Crime fiction is my thing. It's what I read most of, most of the time.
Over a decade ago I stopped reading crime fiction from the U.S. because I found what seemed to be a an unpleasant dwelling on the suffering...
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Events in this novel begin on a Monday when an elevator in a high rise office building breaks through it's safety features and plunges down killing all four passengers riding in it. Popular conjecture is that it... More
Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy.
I do love Linwood Barclay's books so this was a very lovely surprise!
As always, great tension throughout! Read in 2 sittings (I do sleep sometimes).
Very...
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