Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay.

There are 63,000 passenger elevators in New York City. What could possibly go wrong?

Linwood starts off his latest novel with a plunge as the reader is launched into a very busy and crowded New York. The tension starts from the first page as you are thrust through short chapters and as each scene quickly unfolds you do not know what is going to happen next.

There are tons of content in this thriller, there is no padding and as you wade through this avalanche of data it becomes clear Linwood’s writing quality is spot on.

Elevator Pitch is a plot based thriller with an abundance of characters thrown in. The head count is very high but each character is concisely introduced no matter how small or large a part they play in this story. New York is a very busy city and this novel really conveys the buzz on the street.

Linwood explores the everyday threat of terrorism to the citizens of New York. Threats from the Middle East like ISIS plus home grown activists like the Flyovers. Henry Olsen explained the concept behind Flyovers in 2017 when he wrote…

Although originally coined by a citizen of flyover country, the term has become a pejorative description of the interior states of the USA and is largely attributed to coastal and liberal Americans who – in more ways than one – are said to ‘look down’ on these lands and their peoples during their high altitude journeyings from one fashionable seaboard metropolis to another.

...Linwood has little snips of subtle humour sprinkled throughout his story, for example…

“But isn’t that exactly what you have reduced the so-called coasters to? A cliche? Sushi-eating, latte-drinking, gluten-avoiding, Prius-driving elites?”

Barbara sat back on the bench. Oh, no, she thought. She’s gone to the dark side. She’s working for Facebook.

But Twitter was not typically where one posted photos of friends. It was for mouthing off, something Barbara did plenty of.

...I loved how Elevator Pitch is quite topical, it includes real past events and has many, many social observations. I loved the realism of this story and found the threat of everyday terrorism the man in the street has to live with, very engaging. Elevator Pitch showed just how much some people use a mobile phone and how it has become an integral part of their lives. This was quite shocking and a sad but true reflection on how society has developed with many people so absorbed and attached to their mobile phones. They may be connected but can miss out on the really important things happening around them.

I loved reading Elevator Pitch and found it a great, entertaining and thrilling book. I think that Linwood is at the top of his game and that Elevator Pitch is an OUTSTANDING read that gets 5 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Harper Collins UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.