Office party

"Office Party" by Michael A. Gilbert, published by The Linden Press/Simon & Schuster. Like John Fowles's The Collector and James Dickey's Deliverance, here is a novel plausible in its simplicity yet terrifying in its consequence. On Friday afternoon, the day after Thanksgiving, four employees are working overtime at the Mattsfield, Ohio, branch of Felton Products, Inc. At 5PM., one of them—the quiet, self-effacing Eugene Brackin, who has never taken an aggressive action in his forty-six years bolts the exit door with a bicycle lock; takes out a .45 -caliber pistol, a rifle, and three sets of manacles with thirty-inch chains; and turns his three co-workers into hostages.The three members of his party are Lawrence Gaylord, their boss, an executive whose desperate ambitions have driven him to overwork his employees; Mrs. Joan Talmage, the sixty-two-year old administrative assistant, the epitome of office decorum; and Sally Laird, an attractive junior executive whom Brackin has always perceived as his only friend. All three of the hostages are baffled —even sure he is not serious—but they soon realize that their unassuming colleague of so many years may indeed be serious. May indeed be a madman. For, to their horror, they discover that although he has planned this moment for a year, he asks nothing inreturn for their freedom. In fact, Brackin has no demands.Deputy Greg Smolen knows only what Brackin or his prisoners tell him over the telephone. Communications are limited to requests for food and the clear understanding that if the police try to move in, Eugene will shoot his victims. In the office, a psychological interplay begins, with each hostage alternately sympathizing with and despising their captor. As the hours mount, so does the fear— for all of them are now fighting to save their own lives. Repressed hostilities and tensions surface as the hostages themselves fragment and turn against one another in the longest and most terrifying weekend of their lives. Book details: 241 pages, published 1981. Order now on BookShops.in with fast, reliable delivery across India.