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The Accident: Book summary and reviews of The Accident by Chris Pavone

The Accident

by Chris Pavone

The Accident by Chris Pavone X
The Accident by Chris Pavone
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  • Published Mar 2014
    400 pages
    Genre: Thrillers

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Book Summary

As dawn approaches in New York, literary agent Isabel Reed is turning the final pages of a mysterious, anonymous manuscript, racing through the explosive revelations about powerful people, as well as long-hidden secrets about her own past. In Copenhagen, veteran CIA operative Hayden Gray, determined that this sweeping story be buried, is suddenly staring down the barrel of an unexpected gun. And in Zurich, the author himself is hiding in a shadowy expat life, trying to atone for a lifetime's worth of lies and betrayals with publication of The Accident, while always looking over his shoulder.

Over the course of one long, desperate, increasingly perilous day, these lives collide as the book begins its dangerous march toward publication, toward saving or ruining careers and companies, placing everything at risk - and everyone in mortal peril.  The rich cast of characters - in publishing and film, politics and espionage - are all forced to confront the consequences of their ambitions, the schisms between their ideal selves and the people they actually became.

The action rockets around Europe and across America, with an intricate web of duplicities stretching back a quarter-century to a dark winding road in upstate New York, where the shocking truth about the accident itself is buried.

Gripping, sophisticated, layered, and impossible to put down, The Accident proves once again that Chris Pavone is a true master of suspense.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Despite the far-fetched conceit, Pavone makes the story credible, and the suspense is palpable." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Pavone's plot twists tirelessly, shifting focus among a large cast of well-drawn characters... Many readers will read this one through the night." - Booklist

"[An] engaging thriller, driven by compelling portraits of desperate characters." - Library Journal

"Pavone knows the formula for a best-seller and keeps the reader turning the pages." - Kirkus

"Chris Pavone's many fans will not be disappointed with The Accident, his fast-paced, twisting, smart follow-up to The Expats. Cleverly plotted, filled with surprises, a terrific read." - William Landay, New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob

"The dark eruption of long-buried secrets, complex betrayals further snagged by sex and greed, and eleventh-hour desperate gambits for reinvention all propel a whirlwind story that will keep you up way past your bedtime. Crafty, stylish, satisfying." - Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife

This information about The Accident 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

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Alberta Mike

Worst book ever ......
Years ago, I gave up on Robert Ludlum books when they became pure fantasy. I read "The Accident" after reading Pavone's first book (The Ex-Pats) which was a decent read. This second effort is an absolute joke, nothing is believable and the writing style is difficult to even describe. Add to that, a lot of unnecessary F-bomb swearing, even in the narrative parts. I won't be reading his third novel which is now out. Lots of good reviews on another review site for this book (along with some bad ones). I can't imagine anyone enjoying it, save yourself some time and find something else to read.

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Author Information

Chris Pavone Author Biography

Chris Pavone is author of five international thrillers: The Expats (2012), The Accident (2014), The Travelers (2016), The Paris Diversion (2019), and Two Nights in Lisbon (2022).

His novels have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and IndieNext; have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards, and have been shortlisted for the Strand, Macavity, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize; are in development for film and television; and have been translated into two dozen languages.

He has written for outlets including the New York Times Book Review and Magazine, the Telegraph, and Salon; has appeared on Face the Nation, Good Day New York, All Things Considered, and the BBC; and has been profiled on the arts' front ...

... Full Biography
Link to Chris Pavone's Website

Name Pronunciation
Chris Pavone: puh-vo-KNEE

Other books by Chris Pavone at BookBrowse
  • Two Nights in Lisbon jacket
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