The Accident: A Novel

This 461-page (2012) novel highlights author Linwood Barclay's growing skill in the modern crime/mystery genre. He cleverly exploits two themes he has dealt with before: the never-say-die dad caught up in a mesh of murders and disappearances, and the economic and technological background underneath it all. Glen Garber owns a small contracting outfit, is married to a busy wife and has an adorable eight-year-old daughter. When his wife dies in a fiery crash on an expressway on-ramp, Glen is forced to try to put the pieces together: was it a pure accident, the product of an alcoholism he may not have known about, or were there larger forces at hand? THE ACCIDENT reveals the dispiriting climate of the Great Recession: Glen's business is in trouble, friends of his wife make money throwing (supposedly) innocent "purse parties" featuring knockoffs of the big-name purses at much lower prices -- but when Glen looks farther it seems that the counterfeit purses are merely gateway to larger and more insidious forms of illegality, including knockoff prescription drugs, even prostitution. This generally content little corner of America -- suburban Connecticut around Milford, Bridgeport and New Haven -- is hurting more than most people realize, although cell-phone usage is at an all-time high. With unemployment, skyrocketing subprime mortages and bankruptcies looming, Glen's normally nice neighbors are willing to cross the line in ways neither he nor they could have anticipated just a few years earlier.THE ACCIDENT has a great deal going for it, including the rapport between Glen and his school-age daughter, and an understanding of how seemingly trivial suburban crime meshes with big-time criminality even in a "polite" milieu when folks are desperate for money. (However, Glen, whose first-person narration powers this book, swears too much, and some business with certain low-hanging anatomical replicas on one man's truck serves no useful purpose.) A notable feature of THE ACCIDENT is the plot complexity that comes from its nearly 500-page length. However, this length comes at a price: most of the novel's large cast consists of married, middle-aged couples who enter and exit the plot so quickly that at times many seem almost interchangeable. One of the rare lone wolves in the book, an older private eye assigned to fight white-collar counterfeiting, seems like a mouthpiece there to emphasize the criminality behind knockoff goods. After he speaks his piece to Glen, he goes away. But THE ACCIDENT is certainly satisfying, and Barclay seems to have found his journeyman's path in crafting novels that people really appreciate.

Linwood Barclay's THE ACCIDENT is a taut, compelling story about real people sucked into real tragedy. Set in small-town America, the novel focuses on building contractor Glen Garber, whose wife, Sheila, dies unexpectedly in a drunk-driving accident. To make matters worse, the police inform Glen that Sheila was the drunk driver, and that she killed two people in the accident that also claimed her life. Although Glen has trouble believing that Sheila would ever drink-and-drive, he's also dealing with a crumbling business, friends on the verge of bankruptcy, and an 8-year-old daughter who is being bullied at school.THE ACCIDENT reflects the world we live in today, with characters suffering the effects of our very real continuing economic recession. It's amazing how far these very ordinary people will go in order to keep their heads above water. Glen's efforts to discover the truth about his wife's death end up revealing much more about the people he's been living with and working with. What do you do when you're three months behind in the mortgage payments and the bank wants your house? What if you can't afford your prescription medication? What if your business is about to go under and you won't be able to support your family?Barclay's novel is fast-paced and easily accessible. Much of the story is told from Glen's first person perspective, but Barclay shifts to many other perspectives to enrich his story. I was very invested in Glen and his determination to understand events that just might not be understandable. I will admit that several things that happen in THE ACCIDENT require a little of suspension of disbelief (the final reveal is particularly hard to swallow), but it's an exciting thriller that is ultimately satisfying.Accidents aren't always what they seem. Barclay wants us to consider that everything that happens in life affects countless other things. Toss a pebble in a pond and watch the ripples. Or buy a knock-off purse from a guy on the side of the road . . . what could happen? Read THE ACCIDENT and find out!

I am not a Lynwood Barclay virgin; over the years I have read a number of his books and I can't quite put my finger on why they don't excite me. They are after all run of the mill thrillers, the stories differ but generally they are about an ordinary guy who accidentally gets caught in some nasty business. They all stretch credibility far too far, but that's the prerogative of fiction so that's not the problem. I think its the down-homey folksy bit that sticks in "mah craw". The honest guy is always a trusted tradesman: in previous books a car dealer salesman or lawn cutter or something of that sort, and in The Accident its a builder and we learn a lot about the building trade. We also learn a lot about their home town, in this case Milford, Connecticut (not to be confused with Milford, Surrey which would have offered far less opportunity for a book). And that's the problem for me, the books are just too full of things like:" … I lifted off the gas and made a turn off the interstate at junction 17. My truck with its load of guttering, upvc window frames and hardwood doors slowed to a halt at the stop sign on Nixon. I turned into Carter, and hung a left at the lights into Ford and then the took second right into Reagan and a left at the T into Bush. I pulled into the lot and parked behind a brown '96 Chevy Twin-Cab Pickup with a peeling I love Jesus bumper sticker right in front of the mini-mart with the rotting window frames, peeling paint and broken sign where my wife/ex-wife/mom used to buy the flour with the red label from the (insert nationality of choice) guy that worked the delicatessen counter in the morning. I was right across the street from the I-Care walk-in opticians where ..."Now I made all that up, and can't be bothered to work out whether he just drove in a circle! but this book is full of this sort of stuff that adds nothing to the story, it just wastes a couple of paragraphs and demonstrates that the author has spent too much time with Google Earth.Will I read another Lynwood Barclay, yes of course, but I know that it won't be satisfying and I'll be hungry for something meatier before I finish.

I had this sample on my kindle for a while and when I first read it it didn't strike me as very gripping and so I read other things first. I came back to this last week and decided to give it another go, and I have to admit I'm so glad I did!I couldn't see how the beginning of the book was related to the story in any way at first but it eventually became clear. This is a fast paced book which keeps you turning the pages... I read the majority of it in the last couple of days off work and it was one of the those rare finds which you just keeping thinking 'ill read one more chapter and then I'll go to sleep....'.I found the characters to be believable and not too over the top, and I certainly did not see the ending coming at all which in my eyes makes for a brilliant read. There's nothing worse than predictability in a book when you have invested your time in sticking with it. I'm certainly going to be reading some of the authors other titles and I hope they are as good as this one was.I can definitely recommend this book and hope if you read it you enjoy it as much as I did!

The Accident - Linwood BarclayBefore I start reviewing a book I like to see what others have said. No exception to that here either, so why have I given it five stars where others have given a one, two or three? Because I think that sometimes we can be so blind in a relationship that we really can't understand when something completely out of character takes place and this is how I felt for Glen after he discovers that his wife had been driving drunk, killing not just herself, but two other people.Glen tries to hold it together for his daughter and his business but then his daughter Kelly's best friend Emily loses her mother supposedly also to an accident and Glen starts to question what is really going on in suburban Milford.Having read my other Linwood Barclay reviews I can understand what people are saying about the plots. He seems to take pretty normal family situations and turn innocent people's lives on their heads, so yes, a repeating pattern, having said that, I haven't read one of his books for years, so had forgotten this pattern and as a result enjoyed how the plot twists and turns.

This wasn't as good as the last one I read by him-Never Look Away-but it was still a very good read. I was up till round 3am finishing it !! The mark of an interesting tale, I'd say.Glen's wife manages to kill not only herself but 2 others in an accident whilst she was over-the-limit. He is positive she'd never be so stupid, especially as they have a daughter, too. There are a lot of friends included in the story although at times they weren't very good friends at all to each other. It did manage to stay JUST this side of falling into farfetched territory for me.I liked Detective Wedmore-I pictured her looking just like Carter in Person of Interest. A shame we didn't spend more time with her and her interesting back story.There was an odd mention of a fire at one point I didn't get at all and saw no relevance to when I scrolled back in the book. Strange...but aside from this no mistakes which was extremely gratifying. I'll certainly be sticking with this author. I just wait for his prices to drop before I pick them up, though.

This was a two session read for me. I do like a good thriller and this is a good thriller. Linwood Barclay here shows that the world doesn't have to be in dire danger for the suspense to be racked up. Small(ish) and personal does it much more effectively here.There's something for everyone. We're on the edges of organised crime, there's good cops and very dodgy cops, a mob enforcer, an attractive neighbour trying to seduce our hero, loyal and not so loyal workmen, a central character trying to do right but not always succeeding, a young child for yo to go "aww" over, even an interfering mother-in law, all driven by contemporary influences. What's more, without wanting to give away too much, there are some surprising revelations about a few of the characters, especially towards the end which caught me unawares.I've read a few of Linwood Barclay's books and enjoyed every one. This is up with the others without doubt. Now? I'm off to find another that I might not have read. The only problem is that they draw you in, you spend pretty much every spare moment reading and before you know it, it's finished!