My Rating ~ Four stars

RELEASE DATE: 197 August 2019

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia

Format: Paperback

Pages: 437

RRP: AU$32.99

Blurb

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 in 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? Why are they doing it? 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 before the city’s newest, and tallest, residential tower has its Friday night ribbon-cutting.

With each diabolical twist, Linwood Barclay ratchets up the suspense, building to a shattering finale. Pulsating with tension, Elevator Pitch is a riveting tale of psychological suspense that is all too plausible . . . and will chill readers to the bone.

Review

Thank you so much to Harper Collins Australia for providing me with a copy of Elevator Pitch, in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit, elevators freaked me out a tiny little bit before I read this book. Now, I might never ride in one again 🙈😄

Linwood Barclay has done a brilliant job of playing on those background fears you never even knew you had. Living in a place where I would rarely ever need to get in an elevator, I didn’t appreciate the chaos it would cause until I was most of the way through this book!

Once a series of elevator incidents start to look more like a pattern than random events, journalist Barbara takes a keen interest – especially since the lack of knowledge and action is making a fool out of the mayor she loves to hate.

When two detectives land a case investigating a strange murder, it doesn’t seem to be connected to the elevator tragedies…except the murder victim’s job is strangely coincidental.

With high rise Top of the Park set to open, with an extravagant opening party, in a few days, the mayor is under pressure to solve the mystery of who is responsible for the elevator incidents and ensure the rest of New York’s elevators are safe to use. As the chaos over not being able to use elevators, in such a vertical city, builds, the motivation behind it becomes even more difficult to decipher. Is it random terrorism? Or is someone targeting specific people? and why?

Elevator Pitch was an engrossing and terrifying mystery, with truly engaging characters I felt like we really got to know over the course of the book. The only complaint I have is that at times the descriptions were a little too wordy. I know that most people love detailed descriptive language though, so it was probably just my personal preference. There were some fantastic twists towards the end of the book and I’d definitely recommend giving this one a try if you like tense thrillers!