The accident man

Tom Cain

2007 • 340 pages

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Average rating5

If Princess Diana had been murdered, what sort of man would have killed her?Breathlessly paced and featuring one of the most intriguing heroes in recent fiction, Tom Cain's The Accident Man surprises the reader at every turn. For a certain sum of money, Samuel Carver will arrange a death. A ruptured gas line, an automobile crash, a fall from a window; anything can look like an accident. But when Carver is to carry out a job in a tunnel in Paris, and when the job goes wrong for him, and when he is pursued by the very forces that hired him, Carver must execute his most daring feat yet. A thriller of the grandest and most exhilarating sort, The Accident Man races above and below the streets of Paris, across Europe, and through storms at sea. It is also a startling introduction to a hero engaged in acts of moral violence. With the dissolution of world powers, with everything and anything for sale, how does one justify death? Samuel Carver—a clouded man of determined action—will come to understand the prices to be paid. Fans of James Bond, the Jason Bourne films, and Lee Child will thrill at Samuel Carver's violent and uncertain world.

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Series

Featured Series

6 primary books

Samuel Carver

Samuel Carver is a 6-book series with 6 primary works first released in 1 with contributions by Tom Cain.

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Jeffery Harvey

Ever wonder what would happen if you threw Ian Fleming's James Bond, Dan Brown's Robert Langdon, and Steig Larsson's Mikael Blomkvist under one cover? Read Tom Cain's “The Accident Man” and you'll find out.

Tom Cain takes us on Samuel Carver's journey on one last hit that turns out to be Princess Diana. With the factual event as the backdrop, we're free to let the conspiracy theories run wild. Enter corrupt British spies, the Russian mafia, some greedy Frenchmen, etc. This book was, at times, predictable, at times, unexpected, altogether entertaining. The sexual tension between Alix and Carver is believable and the way that Cain depicts Carver's vulnerability is a welcome addition to the standard tough-guy spy character. And while I can certainly say that I enjoyed this one and that I would sometime entertain reading the subsequent Samuel Carver novels, I can't say that I was completely blown away.

The second half of the book definitely read much easier than the first half...such is the case in a novel with a number of characters.

I must also admit that this novel made me want to do a little research. I know shamefully little about the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe and the subsequent formation of Russia and the Baltic states. While my wife knows a good deal about Diana's death, I do not and realized that I should at least understand the basics.

So, as a good friend (@Dave Brown) said in a recent post about this one, “It's a good story that makes us think, what more could you ask for in a summer read?”

~J.

August 1, 2011