Finished We 8/17/11
Hostage Negotiations and Panic Attacks
This is a stand-alone novel from the author who put Forensic Anthropology into the front lines of the Crime Genre. Aaron Elkins is most known for a series of books which feature—the 'skeleton detective', Gideon Oliver. I have not read any of these novels, but I plan to check them out.
THE WORST THING concerns a noted hostage negotiator, Bryan Bennett, who is now teaching the art of negotiation to government and corporate clients. He was brutalized during a kidnapping incident as a small child, and still suffers from the psychological trauma of this tragic event. The book begins as he is asked by his boss to travel to Iceland and host a symposium about corporate security, and while there, he becomes the victim in a hostage situation.
Many elements as to how professional negotiators deal with kidnappers are examined, and you really learn a lot as to how this pseudo-science is applied in real situations. Also, Bennett suffers from severe and debilitating panic attacks caused by his kidnapping ordeal as a five year old, and The Panic Experience is explained in detail. Apparently, to be afraid of a particular thing is very bad, but to be afraid of the fear of that thing is much, much worse.
In an odd literary twist, it is revealed that Mr. Bennett did not actually experience the hostage situation as a child, but it was really his brother. Bryan was only five years old when the incident occurred, and it seems that he extrapolated details and impressions which he gleaned from his parents, and mistakenly believed that it happened to him. This section of the novel was kind of contrived, but overall, this book is a fine example of Hostage Fiction.
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