My latest read was an absolute cracker so a huge thank you to Tracey at Compulsive Readers for my copy.

The Negotiator is the story of Tia, an ex police officer who had a dream to become a negotiator but failed the course. However when she gets caught up in a peaceful protest at a museum that takes a violent turn she sees a chance to prove her worth. 3 years later Asher is released from prison for his part in the siege. When someone starts threatening the survivors Tia begins to think that maybe Asher knows more than he is saying and is determined to stop any more crimes.

I very much enjoyed this book and sped through it. The storyline was interesting, told across two timelines, the present day investigation by Tia and then flashing back to the time of the protest at the museum. The story manages to highlight a number of current issues sensitively and doesn’t come across preachy. The twist at the end was really surprising and not something I saw coming. I did find that the dual storyline made the whole thing feel a little stop start, the scenes in the museum were full of tension and this dipped a bit during the present day scenes. However that actually made the whole story more compelling to me and the pace ebbed and flowed.

As much as I enjoyed the plot, the characters were what really drew me in. Tia was interesting and despite her rather self obsessed personality I felt sympathy for her. However Asher was the one I was really drawn to. Throughout the book I couldn’t get a handle on him. His relationship with his mother and his struggles to reintegrate to life outside prison made me feel for him, however deep down there was clearly a man with a mission who would stop at nothing to reach his goals.

The Negotiator was a great well written novel. This is the second novel by Brooke Robinson and I’ll definitely be reading more.

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