Book Review: The Accident by Linwood Barclay

Written by Dan Malone

Two years ago, my mum(who lives overseas) recommended the author Linwood Barclay to me. As my mums list of favourite books was populated by Catherine Cookson books, I decided to give it a miss, assuming it wasn’t my cup of tea.

A few weeks later I received a package in the mail from my mum with Barclays 2nd book Too Close to Home inside. I read it and thought it was a solid book – enough to convince me to read this others. Then I read Linwoods other standalone novels and was amazed at just how good they were. Too Close to Home was a solid book, but his other books were something special.

After reading his first four standalone books, Linwood Barclay immediately became one of my top 5 authors.

After reading The Accident, he may be my #1 favourite author.

The Accident starts off like all the Linwood Barclay books: with a bang! Something huge happens within the first chapter or two, and the rest of the book is about the mystery behind that and what actually happened.

The incident in question is of course an accident, where a respectable wife and mother goes off to night school. She ends up drunk and passed out in her vehicle just off a major highway, where a car smashes into it killing her and two of the occupants inside the car.

What I really liked about The Accident however was that the actual accident was just a small part of the main story. It’s just the first layer of many, many mysteries within this small town. In prior Barclay books, the incident at the beginning is the whole purpose of the book(although other mysteries do pop up), but this one had a lot of focus on other stories within.

This is a typical Barclay book(and that’s a good thing) where just as you think you’ve got everything figured out, the book throws another twist to keep you guessing. The story moves at a solid pace but never gets too complex. You’ll find yourself hooked and reading all night long.

My only complaint was that I found the female characters weren’t distinguishable enough. Often a chapter would start with focus on a female, and I had to think hard to remember who that character actually was. I think Barclay could have described the female characters a little better, possibly used some different names, and made them more unique.

That’s the only complaint from an otherwise perfect book. I highly recommend reading ALL of Linwood Barclays Standalone Novels, and The Accident is a great place to start.

And if my mum is reading, then what goes around comes around! You’ll be receiving a package in the mail tomorrow or Wednesday, courtesy of Amazon UK.