About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

THE WORST THING
by Aaron Elkins
Berkley Prime Crime, May 2011
305 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0425240991


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

If one was kidnapped in Turkey at the age of five, locked in a dungeon with a chain around one's neck for almost two months, had a toe cut off - what are the odds that one would be writing kidnapping and hostage negotiation programs at the age of thirty-five? What are the odds? And yet, Bryan Bennett lived through all that and survived to write those kinds of programs. Yes, he has major claustrophobia (living two months in a 6x6 cellar will do that) and chronic panic attacks, so he doesn't fly and he won't do actual negotiation himself. He used to until his second negotiation tanked and the victims were killed.

His boss offers him a job in Iceland, a corporate kidnapping seminar. Bryan could probably teach the course blindfolded (well, maybe not), but there's no way to get there without flying. His wife Lori really wants to go, his therapist urges him to give it a shot. With a pill bottle full of Xanax, he and Lori go to Iceland.

The seminar is going well, although the company hasn't told Bryan everything. There has already been one kidnapping attempt on the CEO Baldur Baldursson, and Mr Baldursson carries a gun. Both are factors that would have discouraged Bryan from taking the job.

There is a kidnapping attempt, which doesn't go as planned. One of the victims is killed; one was not in the original plans. The collateral victim is Lori. Bryan realizes his worst fear is NOT being kidnapped again, it's losing his wife. He trades himself for his wife, and voluntarily puts himself where he has always feared he would be: in the hands of terrorists.

THE WORST THING taps into so many primal fears, it's a wonder that Bryan doesn't go crazy. He comes close. He finally decides that perhaps his therapist was right - the only way to get rid of the panic attacks is to embrace them, explore them, and confront the demons. This is, as anyone who has ever experienced or witnessed a major, full-blown panic attack, very difficult to do. Elkins knows this, having lived with panic attacks for a long time. He conveys that terror extremely well. Elkins also gives the reader believable characters and enough of Iceland's beauty and danger to temper the suspense.

Readers have come to expect the unexpected in thrillers and novels of suspense; it's part of the package now. The final twist in THE WORST THING truly comes out of left field. I've been reading in the genre for a very long time, and I never saw it coming. Elkins got me, and got me good and that's impressive, as far as I'm concerned.

§ P.J. Coldren lives in northern lower Michigan where she reads and reviews widely across the mystery genre when she isn't working in her local hospital pharmacy.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, June 2011

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]