Gillian McAllister has been writing for as long as she can remember. She graduated with an English degree before working as a lawyer. She lives in Birmingham, England, where she now writes full-time.
Her novels include Wrong Place Wrong Time and Just Another Missing Person.
McAllister's new novel is Famous Last Words.
At the Waterstones blog she tagged five favorite "novels that employ hostage situations as their main source of drama," including:
Nightwatching by Tracy SierraRead about the other entries on the list.
I endorsed this as ‘the most gripping thriller I’ve ever read’ and I meant every word. It’s a closed-set thriller which focusses on a home invasion.A woman is alone in her house with her two young children in bed asleep when she hears a footstep on the stairs. She gathers up the children and hides with them in a nook behind a chimney breast and it is from this location that Sierra plays out much of the novel. As they seek shelter, there follows a breathless cat-and-mouse thriller, with the invader trying to find them, the protagonist hiding with her children, until the moment she realises he isn’t a stranger: she knows exactly who he is, and why he is there. It ought to be too difficult to write a thriller with only one speaking character and one set, but she lands it. The ending absolutely delivers: I almost cheered.
--Marshal Zeringue
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