Review: Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay has a new novel and Sharon Long is here today with her review. 

Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay releases on September 17, in hardcover, by William Morrow. Linwood is the best-selling author of 18 novels and 2 children’s books. His latest is a suspense thriller revolving around elevator incidents in metro NYC. I’ve read and enjoyed several of Linwood’s books and was anxious to read this one. 

The story opens on a Monday morning, where four people are waiting for an elevator at Lansing Tower in NY City. An elevator comes and the four get on, pressing floors 33, 34 and 37. The elevator shoots past all three of the floors chosen, going to the 40th floor instead, but the doors don't open. The riders start to panic when the elevator starts again. The elevator again skips floors 37, 34 and 33, this time stopping at 29. Suddenly, there’s a loud noise above, and then the elevator plunges in a free fall straight to the ground.

Across the city, Detective Jerry Bourque and Lois Delgado are called to the scene of a dead male whose body was discovered by an early morning jogger. The body’s face is badly beaten and the fingertips on both hands are missing. Upon further examination of the body, they note that the man was wearing novelty socks.  

On Tuesday, there is another devastating elevator incident, this time in a 30-story apartment tower called the Sycamore Residences. On Wednesday, another tragic elevator incident. As the detectives make some headway on the identification of the unknown body, they start to wonder if the murder is somehow linked to the elevator accidents plaguing the city.  

This is a fast-paced read, and it honestly made me glad I don't ride in an elevator on a regular basis. Elevator Pitch involves greed, murder, secrets, politics, and the consequences of prior actions long forgotten. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am curious to see if this is the beginning of a possible series with Detectives Bourque and Delgado.

This book was provided to Mystery Playground by the publisher. The review is fair and completely independent.

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