Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2009
608 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
In this masterfully crafted page-turner, peopled with intense characters and centered on one devastating moment that involves them all, plot-twist queen Penny Vincenzi vividly captures how the actions of one person can dramatically affect many in the blink of an eye.
On an ordinary Friday afternoon, on a major motorway outside of London, a trailer truck suddenly and violently swerves across fives lanes of traffic - careening cars into one another like dominoes and leaving a trail of chaos and confusion. Within the space of a minute, an astounding miles-long pileup has amassed, and, as the survivors await help, their stories unfold.
Vincenzi expertly maneuvers the plot between the panic-stricken husband trapped in his car with his young mistress, his adultery sure to be discovered; the bridegroom trying frantically to get to the church on time (he won't); the widow on her way to reunite with the love of her life after sixty years, now forced to ponder whether she'll ever see him again; the junior doctor waiting to receive the crash victims in the ER … And at the epicenter of this field of destruction lies the truck driver, suffering from memory loss, while the mysterious hitchhiker, the only person who knows what really happened, has fled the scene.
Spellbound by these intimate and evocative tales, we watch as fate takes its powerful course and the far-reaching effects of the crash ripple through the lives of hundreds of people. Written with incredible verve, candor, and wit, Penny Vincenzi reveals human behavior in all its fascinating detail as she challenges her characters to face crisis boldly—and she surprises us with the results at every turn.
"Vincenzi weaves an intricate, dramatic, and intense tale about irrevocable butterfly-effect consequences in the lives of a compelling cast of characters." - Booklist
"[S]ometimes it is hard to keep track of who is who, but, overall, this is an exciting, intriguing, saucy novel." - Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Penny Vincenzi was one of the UK’s best-loved and most popular authors. Since her first novel, Old Sins, was published in 1989, she wrote fourteen bestselling novels.
Her first 'proper' job was at the Harrods Library, aged sixteen, after which she went to secretarial college. She joined the Mirror and later became a journalist, writing for The Times, the Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan among many others, before turning to fiction. At the time of her death in 2018, over seven million copies of Penny's books had been sold worldwide and she is universally held to be the 'doyenne of the modern blockbuster' (Glamour). She has four daughters, and divided her time between London and Gower, South Wales, until her death in February 2018 aged 78.
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