“She knows that she is the obvious — the inevitable — literary agent for this project. And there’s also one very obvious acquiring editor for the manuscript, a close friend who never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like, no matter how ludicrous, no matter what level of lunatic the author. He used to have impressive success with this type of book, even by some of his less rational authors; there’s apparently a good-size book-buying audience out there that inhabits a space beyond the margins of sane discourse. He’ll be motivated to publish another. Especially this one, about these people.”

Book Review:

Review by Chuck Barksdale  (APR 6, 2014)

Isabel Reed, a literary agent for ATM, spends all night reading, The Accident by Anonymous, the new manuscript from her assistant Alexis who was very enthusiastic about it. The book has startling information about Charlie Wolfe, a major media figure with major political connections that is hoping to run for office himself. The information in the manuscript, if true, would certainly end Wolfe’s career as it describes a crime he apparently covered up while a student at Cornell University.

Isabel’s agency and the book business in general have not been doing well, and she knows immediately that this new book is one that will make a lot of money for everyone. She also knows she needs to be careful with whom she works with or it could get out from under her control. She therefore goes to one of her best friends, Jeff Fielder, an editor for McNally & Sons, Inc. Soon after meeting with Jeff, Isabel visits her assistant Alexis to make sure she has not given away the manuscript but she finds her dead in her apartment. This leads Isabel to fear that the wrong people may be working to assure The Accident is never published.

The author of The Accident is very intent on assuring the book is published and has gone to many lengths to stay hidden and to assure that the book is given to the right people. Slowly throughout this novel, more and more information is given about the author, his life and what he has done to assure the story about Charlie Wolfe is revealed. Some of what is revealed is not that surprising while others are major twists that only add to making this an even more enjoyable read.

Hayden Gray, a CIA operative apparently working on his own time, is working with Charlie Wolfe to assure that The Accident is never published. He seems willing to take whatever means are necessary to find out who and where the author of the book is and to eliminate all copies of the manuscript. These conflicting objectives and challenges lead Isabel Reed, Jeff Fielder and many others on one long adventurous day in this very entertaining book.

Pavone includes a lot of characters in the book, along with lots of twists and really you need notes to keep track. I normally do this when reading a book I’m reviewing, but if you are not one to do it, you will need to do it for this one or you probably will get lost. Pavone also likes to change the point of view through many of these characters as well. He rewards the reader with a great story if you can keep up, but otherwise you may be frustrated. Pavone also uses his many years in the book business to provide a realistic and interesting portrayal of the people and difficulties they face.

I was fortunate to meet Chris Pavone in Bouchercon in Albany last year, but at the time I did not know anything about him, although I certainly enjoyed my time talking to him. I was impressed though that he, along with a few other authors, were volunteering in the Concierge area where I was also volunteering. I was happy to see later that he won the Anthony for The Expats, his first novel and that I was able to obtain a copy of The Accident in my Bouchercon book bag. (As as a Boucheron volunteer, I obtained a few extra books and I made sure this was one of them.)

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 98 readers
PUBLISHER:	Crown; First Edition edition (March 11, 2014)
REVIEWER:	Chuck Barksdale
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Chris Pavone
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	Read our review of another murder story: Death of a Writer by Michael Collins

Bibliography:

• The Expats (2012)  / 
• The Accident (March 2014)

“I didn’t want to believe it, though instinctively I did. Suddenly, I was tainted by association. Slave labour in Congolese diamond mines long before I was born had indirectly furnished my father with his shabby little inheritance and his seaside retirement. All those massacres and mutilations I’d read about; all those decades of oppression and exploitation; I’d thought until now they didn’t involve me. But I’d been wrong. Oh so wrong.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage (MAY 20, 2010)

Long Time Coming from British author Robert Goddard is a difficult book to categorize. He’s often referred to as an author of thrillers. This is the first Goddard I’ve read, so I’m not in a position to generalize, but Long Time Coming, (his 21st novel if I’m counting correctly) is part mystery-part suspense. This is not literary fiction, but it is a damn good yarn. The novel isn’t marred by the predictability of some mysteries, and it’s written in a very straight-forward style which manages to emphasize its credibility. Here’s the very first paragraph which creates a terrific sense of immediacy and it’s with these first few sentences that the author begins to spin his fascinating, mysterious tale:

“My mother surprised me when she announced that my uncle was staying with her. It was the first of many surprises that were shortly to come my way. But of all of them it was probably the biggest. Because I’d only ever had one uncle. And I’d always been told he’d died in the Blitz.”

The novel begins in 1976 when Stephen Swan, who’s returning from America in less-than-stellar circumstances, learns via a transatlantic phone call to his widowed mother that his Uncle Eldritch is now living at the Paignton guesthouse she owns. This news comes as a shock to Stephen as years before he was told that Uncle Eldritch “of the exotic christian name and raffish reputation” died in the Blitz. The contrasting versions of Eldritch’s past become even more shocking when Stephen pushes for the truth and is then told that Eldritch has spent the last 36 years of his life locked up in an Irish prison for “offences against the state.” Stephen, consciously playing the role of protective son, tries to get to the bottom of his uncle’s imprisonment, but his questions lead to dead ends and silence. Stephen begins to feel increasingly uncomfortable with the idea that his mother may be harboring some sort of violent criminal.

It doesn’t help that Eldritch is a very shady, shifty, shabby figure with a very checkered past, or that questions about his incarceration are answered with very deliberate evasiveness. While Eldritch may wish to avoid discussing his past, that becomes impossible when he’s approached by a London solicitor to prove that a collection of Picasso paintings were stolen from their rightful owner during WWII. For his trouble Eldritch is to be paid fifty thousand pounds, and he offers to cut Stephen in on the deal….

If Stephen had any sense, he’d refuse, but curiosity rules the day, and this intense curiosity is contagious because I was infected with it too. The novel goes back and forth in time from the WWII years to the present. Swan’s shady past is traced, and a tale of greed, diamond-smuggling, murder and stolen paintings emerges amidst Stephen’s difficult relationship with Eldritch–a man he works with and yet doesn’t trust. Loyalties are further complicated by a budding love affair between Stephen and a woman who has an interest in discovering the truth. There’s more than one seedy skeleton in the family closet, and powerful people are determined that Eldritch, and by association Stephen, won’t uncover the truth about what really happened in Ireland during WWII.

Long Time Coming is a great, deeply distracting read. It’s the sort of book you pick up and don’t want to put down until the mystery is solved. On the down side, the novel seems to go overboard at times–the reintroduction of Moira Henchy towards the end of the novel, for example, just padded pages in a red-herring way, and then the final chapters (1922 and 2008) are ostensibly book ends to the story that takes place. This sewed the tale together all too neatly, and the book would have been better without them. Those complaints aside, will I read another Goddard? Absolutely.

AMAZON READER RATING:	from 9 readers
PUBLISHER:	Bantam; Original edition (March 2, 2010)
REVIEWER:	Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK?	YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE:	Wikipedia page on Robert Goddard
EXTRAS:	Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION:	More good mystery/suspense: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson Where the Truth Lies by Rupert Holmes

Bibliography:

• Past Caring (1986)
• In Pale Battalions (1988)
• Painting the Darkness (1989)
• Into the Blue (1990) *
• Take No Farewell (1991)
• Hand in Glove (1992)
• Closed Circle (1993)
• Borrowed Time (1995)
• Out of the Sun (1996) *
• Beyond Recall (1997)
• Caught in the Light (1998)
• Set in Stone (1999)
• Sea Change (2000)
• Dying to Tell (2001)
• Days Without Number (2003)
• Play to the End (2004)
• Sight Unseen (2005)
• Never Go Back (2006) *
• Name to a Face (2007)
• Found Wanting (2008; 2011 in US)
• Long Time Coming (March 2010)

* Feature Harry Barnett