ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – The Negotiator by Brooke Robinson #BlogTour
It’s my stop on the blog tour for The Negotiator by Brooke Robinson which was published by Harvill Secker on 20th June 2024 in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. My thanks to the publishers for the review copy and to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for the place on the tour.
SHE’S MEANT TO SAVE LIVES. NOT DESTROY THEM.
FROM THE AUTHOR OF BLOCKBUSTER DEBUT THE INTERPRETER, COMES A PROPULSIVE, EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT THRILLER THAT ASKS: CAN YOU EVER FREE YOURSELF FROM YOUR PAST?
Former police officer Tia quit the Met years ago when she failed her exam to become a negotiator, her dream job. But when a peaceful climate protest at a London museum turns deadly, and one of the radicalised group members takes Tia and others hostage, she realises this is her chance to finally prove she has what it takes.
Only not everyone gets out of the siege alive.
Three years later, Tia discovers that the surviving hostages are being harassed and threatened by an anonymous person, leading one of them to take their own life. Refusing to have another death on her conscience, Tia begins to investigate.
But Tia was a hostage that day too… and now she’s a target.
For fans of Clare Mackintosh’s Hostage, Adrian McKinty’s The Chain and Sunday Times bestseller Gillian McAllister.
I’ve been looking forward to reading The Negotiator since I read Brooke Robinson’s first novel, The Interpreter, and I really enjoyed it. The Negotiator is the story of then and now – then, when Tia was caught in the middle of a siege in a museum that Asher was involved with, and now, when Asher has just been released from prison and Tia is asked to look into threats against some of the hostages.
The day of the siege was particularly hard for Tia because she really wanted to become a police negotiator and had failed her exams, and this underpins the entire story with a focus on what went wrong that day and everything that led up to it.
I liked how this novel unfolded quite gradually across the two timelines. The plotting is executed particularly well, giving just enough to move the story on without giving too much away. The characters are sympathetic and I felt I got to know them really well. Tia’s reasons for wanting to become a negotiator and Asher’s motivation behind his part in the siege, plus his difficulties on release and trying to integrate back into a society that he doesn’t feel aligned with, make for an absorbing storyline. Whilst not a massively fast-paced thriller, it is such a gripping read, one which I really got stuck into every time I picked it up. I loved the ending too – hopeful and heartbreaking all at the same time, with a brilliant last line.
The Negotiator is another excellent book from Robinson. I hope she will write more of this sort of emotive and thought-provoking read.
Brooke Robinson grew up in Sydney and as a playwright, has had numerous plays commissioned and produced in her native Australia. In the UK, her work has been shown at the Old Vic theatre and London’s Vault Festival. She studied drama at RADA (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) and City, University of London. The Interpreter was her debut novel.
