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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
The Accident is a fantastic read! It really is a thriller for book lovers. Set in the publishing industry, involving a tell-all manuscript, a host of likeable and unlikeable characters, this thriller kept me occupied all weekend. If you like books, mystery and a healthy dose of crime definitely give this a go.
Thanks Goodreads and Allen & Unwin for my copy of this! LOVED IT!
Thanks Goodreads and Allen & Unwin for my copy of this! LOVED IT!
I heard about this book on a podcast I listen to, and I really liked it! I won't say too much (I'm always wary of giving away too many details in a suspense/mystery type of book), but it was "page turner" (if you can refer to an audio read in that way)... always looked forward to coming back to it, and definitely going to check out what else Chris Pavone has written.
When I heard about this book I was all on board. A book about the publishing industry and a raging serial killer? Sign me up! However there were so many things I disliked about this novel, I couldn't, in good conscience, rate it higher than three stars. The main "issue" I had with this novel would have to be the insistent changing of narrators. At times I was so confused who was speaking and how they were related to the story that I just quit trying to figure out who they were. In the last 50 or so pages there were still names that confused me. I usually have no problem with perspective changes, but the chapters are so short and there are so many narrators it's hard to keep up. It also made it all the more difficult to connect characters with background stories.
My other very large problem with the book would have to be the anti-climatic resolution. I felt like the ending just "happened." There was nothing that really tied the novel together. And I'm not entirely sure what I was hoping for, just something more than a simple ending.
All in all the writing, aside from the narrator changes, was good! The concept was also very good, but the execution left me desiring more.
My other very large problem with the book would have to be the anti-climatic resolution. I felt like the ending just "happened." There was nothing that really tied the novel together. And I'm not entirely sure what I was hoping for, just something more than a simple ending.
All in all the writing, aside from the narrator changes, was good! The concept was also very good, but the execution left me desiring more.
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/2015-summer-reading-guide/
I suspect that this is a very good book that I met at the wrong time, in the wrong format, and we just never clicked. I can see why people in the publishing business must love this - a book about a manuscript full of such powerful secrets that people are killed over its contents and the people who work in the publishing world (assistants, editors, producers, so many occupations I don't really know) must decide how to handle this vaulital work that could make their careers explode - or kill them. It did feel wrong to be reading this on my phone when each character refers to how good it feels to read using physical copies of books. I kept getting distracted by other books and then it became hard to keep straight the backstories of each of these characters and what they were supposed to do or who they were supposed to betray. Along with a healthy dose of misdirection, of course. Something about the pacing seemed off to me - it was all told over the course of one day and was supposedly fast paced, but it seemed to drag without much action. I was, admittedly, distracted from it a lot, and sometimes had trouble keeping straight to each character box. People in the publishing industry (or paying closer attention) would have zero trouble keeping apart an agent from an editor from a publisher from a media mogul. I mean, I didn’t either, just... at times, hard to keep the characters straight. Long and meandering and slow, despite its purported fast pace. The unannounced jumping flashbacks added a layer of confusion (intentional, probably?) It’s beautiful writing and very focused on the book industry - but just not my favorite. Yes! As another reviewer wrote: "Tons of people are killed off slowly and systematically through the book. I found this almost boring." Somehow lots of death and destruction manages to be boring.
Quote:
He’s surprised at how many of those decisions made back then, at a time when adulthood seem to stretch ahead indefinitely, turned out to be untemporary. Careers and hobbies, spouses or lack thereof, political beliefs and literary preferences, hairstyles and pocket squares. 67/1144
Spoiler:
Okay, wait, so the author is married to Isabel? Ugh.
I suspect that this is a very good book that I met at the wrong time, in the wrong format, and we just never clicked. I can see why people in the publishing business must love this - a book about a manuscript full of such powerful secrets that people are killed over its contents and the people who work in the publishing world (assistants, editors, producers, so many occupations I don't really know) must decide how to handle this vaulital work that could make their careers explode - or kill them. It did feel wrong to be reading this on my phone when each character refers to how good it feels to read using physical copies of books. I kept getting distracted by other books and then it became hard to keep straight the backstories of each of these characters and what they were supposed to do or who they were supposed to betray. Along with a healthy dose of misdirection, of course. Something about the pacing seemed off to me - it was all told over the course of one day and was supposedly fast paced, but it seemed to drag without much action. I was, admittedly, distracted from it a lot, and sometimes had trouble keeping straight to each character box. People in the publishing industry (or paying closer attention) would have zero trouble keeping apart an agent from an editor from a publisher from a media mogul. I mean, I didn’t either, just... at times, hard to keep the characters straight. Long and meandering and slow, despite its purported fast pace. The unannounced jumping flashbacks added a layer of confusion (intentional, probably?) It’s beautiful writing and very focused on the book industry - but just not my favorite. Yes! As another reviewer wrote: "Tons of people are killed off slowly and systematically through the book. I found this almost boring." Somehow lots of death and destruction manages to be boring.
Quote:
He’s surprised at how many of those decisions made back then, at a time when adulthood seem to stretch ahead indefinitely, turned out to be untemporary. Careers and hobbies, spouses or lack thereof, political beliefs and literary preferences, hairstyles and pocket squares. 67/1144
Spoiler:
Okay, wait, so the author is married to Isabel? Ugh.
This thriller has a couple of the main characters from Pavone's earlier book The Expats, Kate and Hayden is more minor roles in this new novel. Isabel Reed is a New York literary agent, and recently a manuscript was delivered to her office that seems to have potentially huge prospects. The title of the manuscript is The Accident and the author is listed as Anonymous. The story it tells is the unauthorized memoir of Charlie Wolfe, head of an international media organization, and a man who now has his eye on a political career. The book would cause that hope to die, and raise serious questions about Charlie's company. The reader is exposed gradually to the contents of this biography by other people reading the manuscript. Another source of information about its contents is the extraordinary length someone is going to to ensure the book doesn't get published. It is Hayden who takes the lead on that endeavour, first in Europe tailing the supposed author, and then in the United States once the biography reaches Isabel. Hayden is a Berlin CIA operative, but this case is black ops, completely off the books, and we gradually understand why. Hayden will stop at nothing to prevent publication, and that includes murder. As people with possession or knowledge of the manuscript are followed and eliminated the race to see the real story on Wolfe come out grows ever more precarious.
Isabel suspects who the author really is, but the man she is thinking of is dead. Or is he? We also occasionally see the real author and realize his role in the story and his motivations. He has made a lot of plans to get this story out, but will they be enough?
This novel also gives an inside look at the publishing industry with literary agents, editors, publishers, and even a subsidiary rights agent playing roles. The depth of the characters here add real substance to the book, and give us insight into the story as it develops.
A read that is hard to put down.
Isabel suspects who the author really is, but the man she is thinking of is dead. Or is he? We also occasionally see the real author and realize his role in the story and his motivations. He has made a lot of plans to get this story out, but will they be enough?
This novel also gives an inside look at the publishing industry with literary agents, editors, publishers, and even a subsidiary rights agent playing roles. The depth of the characters here add real substance to the book, and give us insight into the story as it develops.
A read that is hard to put down.
This was nearly a pure foot on the gas romp of a thriller from the first page to the last. The interweaving storylines an flux UATP gets time lines were well executed. There was a lull and flat pacing toward the end, but that was skimmed through. Some of the twists were predictable, but they had their own twists. I really enjoyed Ex Pats, but I think this may have improved upon that. A global thriller that covered Th U.S. and Europe was well flavored with those experiences.
I read Pavone's earlier (and first) book The Expats and loved it. It was a "literary" spy thriller, with a tricky time sequence.
This one brings back the old spy, Hayden, and Kate, one of the two co-protagonists of the Expats. We learn more about Hayden.
But the real headline for this novel is that rather than being a literary thriller, it's a bit more narrowly just a thriller (and a good one) but written by someone who can turn a sentence and a plot. I would say that the character development is deeper in the first novel. In this one, the plot and the twists come first, which is OK by me.
One last thing: Pay attention!
This one brings back the old spy, Hayden, and Kate, one of the two co-protagonists of the Expats. We learn more about Hayden.
But the real headline for this novel is that rather than being a literary thriller, it's a bit more narrowly just a thriller (and a good one) but written by someone who can turn a sentence and a plot. I would say that the character development is deeper in the first novel. In this one, the plot and the twists come first, which is OK by me.
One last thing: Pay attention!
I had read and enjoyed The Expats by Chris Pavone so I was eager to read The Accident. It's about Isabel Reed, a literary agent, who receives a mysterious manuscript which she reads and ...wow! This is scary stuff! The manuscript will cause people to get killed. And several people who find out about the manuscript die in the book.
It's all very exciting and you wonder for a long time what in the world could be the secret of this manuscript that would require all this killing. The story is revealed slowly - almost painfully so - through various character viewpoints. Pavone drags out the suspense until, about 3/4 of the way through, I was proud to say I figured out the ending. But, then there was a twist at the end.
When I sat back and thought a little after finishing the book and finding out the secret, I thought, "what was so terrible about this secret?" Sure, it was front page news and could have kind of destroyed a career, but a secret that wasn't one didn't have much affect on Teddy Kennedy's career.
The back and forth in characters and time was confusing. I liked the book, but didn't think it was as good as The Expats. Kate from the Expats is in this book - a little, as is another character from that book.
A good fast read if you like suspense and action and mystery.
It's all very exciting and you wonder for a long time what in the world could be the secret of this manuscript that would require all this killing. The story is revealed slowly - almost painfully so - through various character viewpoints. Pavone drags out the suspense until, about 3/4 of the way through, I was proud to say I figured out the ending. But, then there was a twist at the end.
When I sat back and thought a little after finishing the book and finding out the secret, I thought, "what was so terrible about this secret?" Sure, it was front page news and could have kind of destroyed a career, but a secret that wasn't one didn't have much affect on Teddy Kennedy's career.
The back and forth in characters and time was confusing. I liked the book, but didn't think it was as good as The Expats. Kate from the Expats is in this book - a little, as is another character from that book.
A good fast read if you like suspense and action and mystery.
An anonymous manuscript is delivered to literary agent Isabel Reed. It contains an explosive tell all about a well known media mogul. The more people read it, however they acquire it, the more likely they are to end up dead. This novel takes place over the course of one day as Isabel tries to stay one step ahead of CIA operative Hayden Gray, who seeks to destroy the manuscript and all knowledge of it. Meanwhile our anonymous, cancer ridden author is anxiously awaiting for the shoe to drop in hiding in Zurich.
Quite honestly, I managed to figure out the ending quite early so that was a bit of a draw back for me. There is a great deal of espionage and conspiracy here to delight most thriller fans. For a face paced story taking place in one day, however, I found myself constantly looking to see how many pages I had left to get through. That being said I did very much want to see whether this manuscript, and its writer and readers, would live to the last page.
Quite honestly, I managed to figure out the ending quite early so that was a bit of a draw back for me. There is a great deal of espionage and conspiracy here to delight most thriller fans. For a face paced story taking place in one day, however, I found myself constantly looking to see how many pages I had left to get through. That being said I did very much want to see whether this manuscript, and its writer and readers, would live to the last page.
I wanted a page turner and I ended up getting a long slog. Maybe the reader didn't do it for me.