Review: Elevator Pitch

Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If you have ever stepped onto a passenger lift and thought, “What if the cable broke?” you will relate fully to the core plot of Linwood Barclay’s ELEVATOR PITCH. The book begins with an actual elevator pitch; a frustrated would be script writer sneaks past security to approach the executive whom he has targeted as the prospective champion of his work, cornering her in an elevator which then proceeds to move randomly between floors before plummeting down the shaft. Over the next few days, more elevator tragedies occur and Barclay’s cast of characters, including the, possibly shady, Mayor of New York, his aide and son, a news reporter and her estranged daughter, are drawn into the events and their aftermath.

The book is as fast moving and tense as one would expect from Linwood Barclay, tightly plotted and relatable, believable characters. The events are on a larger, 1970s disaster movie-like, scale than his previous novels which I have read and it does suffer slightly in comparison with some due to the lack of focus, the multiple viewpoint character. But ELEVATOR PITCH is a thrill-ride, a claustrophobic, breathless pleasure to read.

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