I couldn’t stop reading this book. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I kept telling my mum about another elevator accident that had happened - that is how realistic it was!!

Great style of writing, characters you could easily identify with. I enjoyed getting to know some of the characters - the slight twist With Arla was fairly obvious but didn’t detract from the storyline.

A great book im glad I took the time to read.

What can I say? Linwood Barclay never disappoints!! Fantastic book, great characters, read in 2 days!. Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the advance copy!

Definitely a can’t put it down sort of book. I have always hated elevators, or lifts as we call them in the UK. My mum always told me the story of how her brother died in a lift accident, many, many years ago. This book captures all the claustrophobia and powerlessness that I feel when I have to use a lift. It keeps you guessing until the very end. The characters are very rounded; neither all good nor all bad. They certainly have faults but they also have redeeming features. It features New York police, but is far more than just a police thriller. An excellent read, but better enjoyed on the ground floor of your home rather than in a high rise building.

Linwood Barclay writes an intense, dark and fast paced thriller set in the most vertical city in the world, New York has more skyscrapers than anywhere else, with elevators a critical requirement for almost everyone in their daily lives. In a terrifying premise that has all the hallmarks of realistic possibility, it begins on a Monday in Morris Lansing's building, an elevator goes crazy, leaving four people dead. Elevator accidents happen, they are rare, it is at first assumed that this is just such a tragedy. However, on Tuesday, there is another elevator accident that results in a gruesome death. The ambitious mayor, Richard Wilson Headley and his team are to find themselves under extreme stress and pressure as evidence emerges that these may not be unfortunate tragedies, it seems someone has embarked on the path of creating terror, fear and mayhem. Headley finds himself in the midst of a crisis as he orders all elevators to be shut until essential checks are made, bringing the city to a standstill, whilst more die who rely on elevators.

Barbara Matheson is a journalist who has made life difficult for the mayor, she loses a friend in the first elevator disaster. She wants to know who is behind the attacks, surely there are easier ways to cause death and mayhem? She is shocked when her daughter, Arla, finds herself a job in the mayoral office, and concerned by comments left on her articles by someone calling themselves Going Down. An alt-right group calling themselves, The Flyovers, headed by Eugene Clement, is suspected of explosions in coastal cities like Boston. Clement and his wife have arrived in New York, ostensibly for their wedding anniversary, but clearly there is another agenda. NYPD Detectives Jerry Bourque and his partner, Lois Delgado, find themselves on the scene of a murdered man, near the railtracks. The man's face has been destroyed and his fingertips have been cut off, someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to prevent him being identified. Why?

Barclay ratchets up the tension with skill with his short chapters, providing the reader with a myriad of colourful and interesting characters, and the best possible location to illustrate just how much peoples' reliance on elevators can be exploited to deadly effect, and fan the fears of all who live in one of the most important cities in the US. This is a high octane intense read, full of suspense and tension, and effortlessly gripping. This is for all those who love their crime thrillers, written by an experienced author who can be relied on to provide the necessary thrills and chills. Many thanks to HQ for an ARC.

I have read and enjoyed all of Linwood Barclay’s books and Elevator Pitch did not disappoint.

This is a gripping story which begins when two Police Officers Delgado and Bourque investigate the murder of a man whose face is unrecognisable and whose fingertips have been removed. They soon discover, through brilliant detective work, the name of the murdered man and that his occupation is that of an elevator maintenance man.
Soon the investigation takes another turn when an elevator appears to malfunction plummeting to the bottom of the shaft, killing all four occupants. The next day, a similar fatal elevator incident occurs in a residential high-rise in another part of Manhattan. The day after that, a third falling elevator throws the city into a panic and fear is rife. Added to the fear of New Yorkers a bomb goes off causing more tension. Are these incidents down to terrorists, Russians or a madman acting alone.
The story revolves around the Mayor Richard Headley, his son Glover and his employees. The Mayor must decide whether to shut down all elevators in New York thus bringing the city to a complete standstill. Throw into the mix a female reporter called Barbara with a secret and a dislike of the Mayor and all he stands for. The story is strengthened by a good plot, a cast of characters who are complex and complicated, of loyalty, betrayal and a long held resentment which manifests itself while the suspense builds as it is revealed how the initial murder ties in with the elevator deaths.
This was a gripping read, it did not disappoint and you will never ride in an elevator (lift) without a sense of mild fear.
Many thanks to the Publishers the Author and NetGalley for this ARC in return for my honest review

I'm a great fan of Linwood Barclay's books and have read and enjoyed all his previous work. I was really looking forward to reading Elevator Pitch but unfortunately I was quite disappointed in this novel. I found it quite difficult to get into as it seemed to take ages before anything really happened. It picked up in the middle of the book and the ending was a surprise but I wasn't as engaged with the storyline as I usually am with this author's books.

Elevator Pitch is a very different and clever thriller .This is a story about one Monday in New York when there is a tragic elevator incident when 4 people are killed .The next day it happens again and again and soon New York is paralysed with fear. The Mayor decrees that all elevators are shut down until they can be individually checked for safety and in a city that mainly consists of high rise buildings this causes chaos.The story is fast paced and the characters very believable ,I didn't guess who was behind it all but I really enjoyed the ending .
Many thanks to the Publisher ,the Author and NetGalley for my review copy in return for an honest review .

Having read many of Linwood Barclay books and thoroughly enjoyed them, I was very excited to be reading his new release, and this latest book of his most certainly didn't disappoint. It is set in the city of New York, the most vertical city in the world, when it becomes apparent that elevators around the city are being sabotaged. You follow the main detectives in their search to find who is behind this, as well as many other stories around some of the main characters, leading to the final revelation - which of course contains various twists in the plot. The book also explores the concept of what would happen in NYC - being a city full of skyscrapers and buildings trying to gain the highest status - when access to the top and bottom of these buildings ceases by mechanical elevators; a concept that would set the city into sheer panic and chaos, and this is exactly what Barclay creates in this novel. Each chapter, in true Barclay style, presents an episode of the story based around certain characters, then leaves you on a cliffhanger wanting to read on and know more. The characters are well portrayed for this story and in the city it is set in, and you find yourself also trying to work out who is responsible for these horrific events alongside the main characters. This book kept me gripped from beginning to end and I would recommend to anyone who likes a good detective fiction novel, or has read any previous Barclay books. My thanks goes out to Harlequin UK and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this.

I engaged with this book from the very beginning. It moved at a fast pace and showed no signs of really stopping. The plot lines were well thought out and came together well at the end. What a great way to bring a city to a halt and create pandemonium.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

4 Stars from me!

Another belter from one of my all time favourite authors, Linwood Barclay!

Elevator Pitch is clever and incredibly fast paced - you will race through this book whether you plan to or not as you will be swept up and along in the mayhem as the story unfolds.

As ever with Barclay's books, the characterisation is sublime - whether someone features for half a chapter or whether they are in it for the whole book - you literally feel as though you know the person, you can see them, smell them, imagine their apartment or their features and practically hear their voice. Linwood Barclay is a genius in this respect.

I love all the clever little touches - like the #poorGlover hashtag and all the fake Mayor twitter accounts, I love all the petty squabbles between couples and the minute details about a persons day.

My overall favourite Linwood Barclay book remains Never Saw It Coming but I highly recommend this author and any of his work - if you want a consistently clever, entertaining and intelligent read you won't go far wrong.

Synopsis: The New York Times bestselling author of A Noise Downstairs and No Time for Goodbye returns with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach—a heart-pounding tale in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear.

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.

“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, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman and Strange Weather

This book was hard to read as I have a phobia about lifts.
There were many stories within the story and on the whole these were interwoven well.
This is a solid book with lots of underlying tension

I'm a fan of Linwood Barclay, he takes everyday, seemingly boring scenarios and turns them into desperate races for life. People that seemed to be your average middle class person living a quiet existence become murderers, terrorists or criminals hunting out their pray. The description of his latest book, Elevator Pitch, certainly sounded different and interesting. The book started well, a few unsuspecting New Yorkers killed in a lift accident. It then goes onto a more grisly episode with a visiting Russian Scientist. So far so good. But them it becomes a different book entirely, we get an insight to the goings on in the office of Richard Headley, mayor of NY and the head of an organisation called Flyovers who happily blow people up. Similarly we have Barbara, a journalist who constantly writes critical articles about the Mayor, her daughter, Arla, Grover, the Mayor's son, and Chris, a mayoral aid, who is someone Barbara fancies. From then on it's a bit more Mills and Boon rather than a thriller. Without wanting to appear cruel, a few more lift accidents would have been acceptable, more thriller like incidents. Although the lift theme does come up again in the ending scenes. Having said all that, I did enjoy reading it immensely and it was a real page turner even if it was not entirely in Linwood's style.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC, which I have enjoyed reading.
Whilst I enjoyed reading this book by Linwood Barclay I do not think that Elevator Pitch was one of his best books. It was a good read and kept the reader interested but it was just okay. Whereas I have read some of his earlier books and they were engrossing and intriguing and kept the reader involved and wanting to know what happened next.
It was worthwhile reading, just not one of his better books.
Recommended.

This book started very strong and glued me to the page. I like the premise and the pace.
But, it got a little slower in the middle. The end was really good. Enjoyed the writing, the tension. I'm a little more scared of lifts though!
Thanks a lot NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher a few months before the book was published. I'm basing my review on the assumption that the copy that I received is not the final version. I say this because there were so many errors - spelling mistakes, missing words, layout errors, grammatical errors, and other typing errors - that I assume that they will not appear in the final version. Despite this caveat, unfortunately the errors were so numerous (averaging at least one per page), that it made it hard to engage with the book at times.

Putting the errors to one side, there is a very enjoyable story in here. It did feel at times that the author was in a rush to get to the concluding part of the book. And as great as that was, I would have preferred to see more detail in the earlier chapters, developing the characters more, more description to go with the conversations.

Eleavator pitch by Linwood Barclay
I really enjoyed this book and have no hesitation in recommending it. The premise was sound and the characters were well developed. Quite a few threads which all worked well and were concluded well- often in a book you get a sense of one or more parts of the storyline having a rushed conclusion but this was not the case. I’m really keen to hear more about the cases detectives Delgado and Bourque get involved in and, of course, from Barbara, who I reckon will never be able to resist a good investigative journalistic situation! Excellent book

This story starts with four people in an elevator which plummets to the ground killing all four people. It is thought to be an isolated incident until there are more disasters involving elevators. The story is told from several prospectives. I felt the main character was Barbara who was a journalist and determined to get to the bottom of who was behind these attacks and why.

I was really excited to start this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat at the beginning but I started to lose interest in the middle. I didn’t really care about the subplots either. It did get a lot better towards the end. I didn’t guess who was behind the attacks and/or why which I always appreciate. I could imagine this making a good Netflix series.

You board the elevator, just like you do every morning. Your eyes are glued to your smartphone as you tap from news site, to weather app, to social media feeds and back again. You take little notice of the others surrounding you and they are all immersed inside their own virtual morning routines. But something sparks you out of it. The elevator is not moving. You jab impatiently at the ground floor button but the elevator does not move. When it finally does it rises, away from your conjoined destination. A group sigh is released. The elevator stops again. This time it falls down to your destination. It continues to fall. It does not stop. It hits the ground shattering its metal frame and every bone contained inside of it.

This is the nightmare reality that is plaguing New York, when a slew of consecutive elevator murders take place, leaving every modern high-rise to feel like the creation of a haunted horror film.

Despite the modern setting, this is exactly the type of thrilling reading it also provided for the reader, as gory murder was delivered with inevitable conclusion but with the most drawn-out and suspenseful of narrative styles.

Surrounding this was a politically-heightened focus that provided perspectives from the fields of the police force, the media, and the mayor's office. Who to trust and who to believe inside of them was often tricky and it required my intrigue and investment in every one of their stories.

Two major plot twists had me reeling early on and I maintained my excitement in this story until a final third grand reveal and the high-stakes conclusion. This intrigue had me pressure-reading throughout, despite a small early resistance when the political focus felt not to my current tastes. However Barclay soon had me bypassing this and also ensured himself as a writer to trust and one I will definitely read from again.

Chilling tense a book that grabbed me from the first pages into a whirlwind of fear terror.A multilayered story that grabs you keeps you on the edge of your seat. #netgalley#ha

Ohhhh what a ride this book is. Thrilling, exciting, fast, a few red herrings thrown into the mix and away we go on a scaaaaary ride! What Hitchcock did for showers, Spielberg for sharks,etc Linwood Barclay does for elevators. Now I know why I've been an elevator -phobe all my life - and this thriller does nothing to diminish my fear. You just know when you crack open a Barclay novel that you're in for some serious thrilling entertainment and ELEVATOR PITCH is no exception to this. I was holding on for dear life.........and if you happen to live in a high-rise building and are dependent on elevators ? YIKES.....better get your running shoes at the ready to tackle the stairs because this book will put you of elevators for life. Loved this book and my thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. It was a good 'un.