The Accident

by Chris Pavone

From Edgar Award-winning Chris Pavone, author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller The Expats, comes a riveting time-bomb of a thriller (fans of The Expats will be excited to see a few characters from Pavone's first book pop up here as well). Taking place over the course of twenty-four hours, The Accident draws on the rich worlds of publishing, politics and international spies to tell a suspenseful tale of intrigue in the vein of John Grisham and Laura Lippman.

In New York City, Isabel Reed, one of the most respected and powerful literary agents in the city, frantically turns the pages of a manuscript into the early dawn hours. This manuscript - printed out, hand-delivered, totally anonymous - is full of shocking revelations and disturbing truths linked to a car accident that occurred years ago, things which could compromise national security. Is this what she's been waiting for her entire career: a book that will help her move on from a painful past, a book that could save her beloved industry... a book that will change the world?

In Copenhagen, Hayden Gray, a veteran station chief, wary of the CIA's obsession with the Middle East, has been steadfastly monitoring the dangers that abound in Europe. Even if his bosses aren't paying attention, he's determined to stay vigilant. And he's also on the trail of this manuscript - and the secrets that lie at its heart. For him, quite simply, it must never see the light of day.

As Isabel and Hayden try to outwit each other, the nameless author watches on from afar. With no-one quite sure who holds all the cards, the stakes couldn't be higher: in just one day careers could be ruined, devastating secrets could be unearthed, and innocent people could die. As the manuscript moves from person to person, it leaves a trail of bodies in its wake.

Gripping, sophisticated, and impossible to put down, The Accident is a masterful follow-up to one of the most acclaimed and striking debut thrillers of recent years.

• ISBN10: 0571298966
• ISBN13: 9780571298969
• Publish Date: 11 March 2014 (first published 1 January 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Faber & Faber
• Edition: Main
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[viking2917]

The Accident is Chris Pavone's followup to his surprise bestseller The ExPats. While there is some character overlap (our redoubtable heroine Kate from The ExPats makes her appearance), the focus is mostly elsewhere.

Isabel Reed, a fading star in the publishing firmament, receives a mysterious manuscript with explosive revelations about a famous media mogul. Pretty soon people are dying, and well, you know the drill. Que the car chases, the narrow escapes, the romantic encounter with the old friend, the mysterious reappearance of people from the past, the deaths, the explosions, .... you get it. It's truth in advertising here, a very decent beach read (which is where I read it). But not, I'm afraid, much more than that.

Much of the Accident is very well done. The plotting is solid, never really becomes too unbelievable, and regularly features a few surprising twists, the prose glides easily over the brain...and yet. The third time a character mysteriously forgets something at their office/home, retraces their steps only to be confronted by a bad guy looking for something, it started to get a bit too formulaic for me. Once, ok. twice, ok? Third time, dig harder for a new plot device next time. I also found the profusion of unnamed characters in the first few chapters more irritating and confusing than mysterious. Isabel is well rendered, as a publishing professional reaching middle age and starting to lose the passion, but the rest of the characters felt a bit too by-the-book for me. By way of contrast, in the Ex Pats, Kate is a wonderfully drawn character, complete with warts, confusion, secrets from her husband, and torn between her secret life as an agent and her simple life as a mother.

Speaking of publishing, The Accident is also a sort of love song to the publishing industry. Pavone spends a lot of time both in the novel, the forward and the credits, praising the real and imagined characters that populate the industry. As Pavone is a former publishing house employee, that's not surprising, and he seems to have followed the well-trodden path of publishing industry insider to someone with a book contract. I'm curious what % of authors with contracts worked in publishing first, as compared to Indie Authors.

While it's totally an unfair contrast, as I was reading The Accident I was also reading A Perfect Spy by LeCarre, one of the best spy novels (perhaps any novel) written this century, and clearly The Accident is a "genre" book and A Perfect Spy is a work of art. While it's hard going, you'll never understand a character better, and why they might betray everything they ever loved, by reading A Perfect Spy. Apples and Oranges I guess.

If you want a quick, solid, beach book, The Accident will do nicely. Or, you could invest your time in something amazing like A Perfect Spy (be forewarned, reading A Perfect Spy is work, with an amazing reward, not a quick beach read).

I received a copy of The Accident via the wonderful LibraryThing early reviewers program.