The Accident

The Accident: A Thriller
Linwood Barclay
Bantam
August 2011
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0553807189
400 pages
$25.00
Fiction

Sometimes one event in your life can seem like a domino with it causing more problems than you could
ever imagine. This one event is the domino that causes everything else to collapse.

Glen Garber owns his own company which builds houses. Unfortunately with the recent economic
problems and the downward spiral in the housing market, it is causing some money problems at home.
His wife, Sheila, is taking a business class at the local college so that she can assist with the bookkeeping
for Glen’s business and might be able to get another job on the side to help with the family finances.

However, their lives change dramatically when Sheila is killed in a car accident. Apparently, she was
drunk and attempted to drive. Her car was involved in a head-on collision facing the wrong way on an
interstate on-ramp killing Sheila and two people in the other car.

Glen is home with his daughter, Kelly, when the accident happens. His wife is suppose to be at class but
apparently she skipped class tonight. As Glen looks for her vehicle, he sees the police and immediately
sees the situation. The police let him know that the accident was his wife’s fault and they already know
that she was intoxicated.

What bothers Glen the most is that this accident was not like something that Sheila would have ever
done. She didn’t drink and drive. Added to that, now Glen is being sued for not insisting that his wife
get help for her alcohol problem. How could he insist that she didn’t get help when she didn’t have a
problem?

Glen has to deal with the grief while still maintaining his business. Unfortunately, not all is at it seems
and his life continues in this downward spiral. Where will the bottom be?

The Accident is a riveting page-turner. The characters are realistic and unfortunately, the story has an
authentic feel throughout the entire story. Things are seldom as they seem.

The character of Glen was extremely well-developed and realistic. He just wants to do what is
best for his daughter and business. Literally, he is in the survival mode but manages to get through
many uncomfortable and crisis situations while still grieving and protecting his daughter.

Linwood Barclay has written numerous comic thrillers and many darker standalone adventure novels.
This former journalist now writes novels full-time.

If The Accident is typical of Linwood Barclay’s novels, I definitely plan to read anything written by this
master of suspense.