In the past few months in my fiction reading journey, I have come across a lot of books that are all either hot garbage or mediocre at best. Coming out with his second standalone thriller in his bibliography, L.A. writer Robert Crais definitely delivers and has set the bar high in the mystery genre game with HOSTAGE. To be honest with you, this book was such a breath of fresh air that I enjoyed this more than the last four Prey novels from John Sandford (EASY PREY, CHOSEN PREY, MORTAL PREY, and NAKED PREY) combined. HOSTAGE was definitely a green light the moment I saw the film adaptation with Bruce Willis.In HOSTAGE, we are following Jeff Talley, a veteran SWAT hostage negotiator that has had quite an unfortunate history with attempting to prevail with hostage negotiating scenarios. One evening, Talley gets called to stop three convicted teenage felons from home invading a wealthy family in Los Angeles. While being in the midst of ceasing this invasion, Talley gets (slight spoiler) caught in abduction by The Watchmen, a second group of villains that happen to abduct his own family. To save them, Talley has to retrieve a specific item in the house belonging to the Watchmen. Myriad Twists lie ahead between Talley and the teenage felons that uncover a big conspiracy and make this invasion not appear to be what is seems.HOSTAGE by Crais definitely not only sets the bar for the mystery/thriller genre, but also gives other movie adaptations, such as Jeffery Deaver's THE BONE COLLECTOR and David Baldacci's ABSOLUTE POWER, a run for their money. To begin with the positives, HOSTAGE is an understandable storyline that is packed with lots of action from one scene to the next. The book contains likeable characters, both protagonist and antagonists. The best part of the entire book is Crais's dialogue and how he patches it together as a former TV writer from one character interaction to the next.Even though HOSTAGE contains many major strengths, it does lie some issues as well. The first downfall of the book involves Talley's personal life with himself and his family. Despite the book being an enjoyable read overall, the filler that Crais tends to add between Talley and his family tends to come off a bit shallow and fails to propel the story forward. Such fillers fall short in comparison to others including the one with document examiner Parker Kincaid from Jeffery Deaver's standalone THE DEVIL'S TEARDROP. Despite HOSTAGE containing a more cohesive story overall, the filler in it pertaining to Talley's personal life fails to deliver the same level of entertainment in comparison.My second issue with HOSTAGE involved the lack of clarity of which character was talking to whom throughout the story. It is my belief to say hypothetically that Crais got a little too wrapped up in his head, thus slightly confusing the reader in the dialogue from certain parts of the book.Overall, HOSTAGE definitely delivered for me in both the book and movie adaptation. If I were to prefer one to the other, gun to the head, I would have to prefer the movie adaptation over the book just a little bit more. Reason being is that I believe, in my opinion, that Mirimax made the necessary adjustments of the book's direction to make the script and story a little more cohesive and entertaining. I definitely give this a five-star Rockstar read, making this one of my best reads this year.