Book Summary and Reviews of The Accident Man by Tom Cain

The Accident Man by Tom Cain

The Accident Man

by Tom Cain

  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2008, 336 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Breathlessly paced and featuring one of the most intriguing heroes in recent fiction, Tom Cain’s The Accident Man surprises the reader at every turn. For a certain sum of money, Samuel Carver will arrange a death. A ruptured gas line, an automobile crash, a fall from a window; anything can look like an accident. But when Carver is to carry out a job in a tunnel in Paris, and when the job goes wrong for him, and when he is pursued by the very forces that hired him, Carver must execute his most daring feat yet.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Audacious, authentic, full of tension and tradecraft . . . Maybe it’s true and maybe it isn’t, but either way it’s a great thriller read. I loved it." - Lee Child.

"This is the best first thriller I have read since The Day of the Jackal, and that was a long time ago. With one mighty bound Tom Cain has vaulted over Archer and Grisham and stands close on Frederick Forsyth’s tail." - Wilbur Smith.

"A likable hero and nicely detailed action help offset a predictable and at times overwrought romance." - Publishers Weekly.

"[H]igh-concept and clever enough to have got him a film sale already ... The only real surprise is a downbeat ending, perhaps in belated realisation that it is, for all its efficient craft, an exercise in exploitation." - The Guardian.

This information about The Accident Man was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Tom Cain

Tom Cain is the pseudonym of a British journalist who apparently has a twenty-five-year history of investigative reporting. According to some sources the name behind the pseudonym is David Thomas.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Accident Man, try these:

  • When These Mountains Burn jacket

    When These Mountains Burn

    by David Joy

    Published 2023

    About this book

    Acclaimed author and "remarkably gifted storyteller" (the Charlotte Observer) David Joy returns with a fierce and tender tale of a father, an addict, a lawman, and the explosive events that come to unite them.

  • If the Creek Don't Rise jacket

    If the Creek Don't Rise

    by Leah Weiss

    Published 2017

    About this book

    With a colorful cast of characters that each contribute a new perspective, If The Creek Don't Rise is a debut novel bursting with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit.

  • The Animals jacket

    The Animals

    by Christian Kiefer

    Published 2016

    About this book

    For fans of Denis Johnson and Peter Matthiessen, a literary thriller from one of the most exciting new voices in American fiction.

We have 11 read-alikes for The Accident Man, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!
Book Club Giveaway!
Win L.A. Women

L.A. Women by Ella Berman

Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.

Enter

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
    by David Woo, Margalit Shinar
    Nine linked stories reveal how globalization sparks life-changing consequences across continents.
  • Book Jacket
    Chelsea Girls
    by Catherine Lloyd
    A glamorous biographical novel on Mary Quant, whose daring design of the miniskirt revolutionized fashion.
  • Book Jacket
    Days of Sun and Shadow
    by India Hayford
    A young woman’s coming-of-age story set in the early American frontier, shaped by tragedy, nature, and resilience.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Summer of Love
    by Kerri Maher
    Three women reshape their family's Napa Valley winery after the 1967 Summer of Love.
  • Book Jacket
    An Infinite Love Story
    by Chanel Cleeton
    “A tender, romantic drama that soars as high as it’s astronauts.” —Kate Quinn
Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

The C is A R

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.