The Worst Thing
subtitle
Aaron Elkins

Berkley Prime Time
May 2011 / ISBN 9780425240991
Suspense
Amazon

Reviewed by Barbara Buhrer

Bryan Bennett was abducted and imprisoned as a small boy.

Now 31 years later he is married and the designer of hostage negotiation programs. As a result of the imprisonment he has intense nightmares and panic attacks and a great fear of enclosed space. This fear prevents him from traveling.

He is asked to fly to Iceland to teach a corporate level seminar on kidnapping. At first he refuses but the CEO of Global Seas Fisheries has requested no one else. He relents as his wife is included and he feels he owes the trip to her since in the past he had never taken her anywhere.

Bennett's worst fears are realized when he is once again taken hostage. Now he must confront his worst fears and use all the knowledge he has learned to retain his sanity and survive.

There is an unexpected ending!

Elkins in this stand-alone book from his Gideon Oliver series has given his readers an engrossing, suspenseful page turner. As always it is well written with an excellent cast of characters. The Worst Thing gives a complete picture of the incarceration and treatment of a hostage. The mental problems caused by the imprisonment are well documented. This is also a primer for what to do and not to do as a hostage. What a read.