The Accident Man: A Novel [Hardcover]

Tom Cain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The pseudonymous Cain, a British journalist, has come up with a clever premise for his first novel. One summer night in 1997, Samuel Carver, an extremely capable assassin who only targets bad guys, is in a Paris tunnel ready to make a hit. He causes a speeding black Mercedes to smash into a stone pillar, leaving the car's principal passenger, a dangerous terrorist, he's been told, undoubtedly dead. Moments later, Carver himself is on the run from a Russian thug. Only after escaping the Russian does Carver realize he's caused the death of Princess Diana. Carver vows revenge on those who set him up. A number of spy organizations are involved as well as several intermediaries, all of whom Carver must work his way through before finding who's behind the conspiracy. A likable hero and nicely detailed action help offset a predictable and at times overwrought romance between Carver and the Russian's female accomplice. Hopefully, Cain will keep the mayhem and soft-pedal the love interest in his next Samuel Carver thriller. (Feb.)
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Review

“Audacious, authentic, full of tension and tradecraft . . . Maybe it’s true and maybe it isn’t, but either way it’s a great thriller read. I loved it.”
—Lee Child

“This is the best first thriller I have read since The Day of the Jackal, and that was a long time ago. With one mighty bound Tom Cain has vaulted over Archer and Grisham and stands close on Frederick Forsyth’s tail.”
—Wilbur Smith

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (January 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067001849X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670018499
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,343,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Accident Man, May 30, 2009

By 

Karen B. "KB" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Accident Man: A Novel (Paperback)

This book was an excellent book. The book was based on actual events around which the author wrote a "what if" story that was full of action and suspense, providing an entirely plausible "story" about what really happened when Princess Diane was killed. I have read the sequel and hope that the author writes more books.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Twisting in the wind, March 25, 2009

By 

Stoney (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Accident Man: A Novel (Paperback)

Two assassins are independently hired, by the mysterious British "Consortium", and unknowingly cooperate to murder "Princess Diana" in Paris. Next, the Russian team is supposed to kill Samuel Carver (the British assassin) and then be killed by a bomb which Carter placed earlier. But Carver and Alix (a member of the Russian team) escape, and for some unclear reason, team up. Then they find themselves running from the "Consortium", British Intelligence, and the Russian Mob.

The mush-mouth British narrator of the audio version frequently pronounces "Carver" as "Kava". Through several chapters I wondered where the heck this new (presumably Russian) character, "Kava", had come from. Speaking of Carver, at some point Alix asks him how he managed to get to be a British officer, when such positions are reserved for the upper class. Carver answers that got to be a British officer because he was adopted into a poor family, which didn't want him, and sent him off to boarding school--Huh? In return, Alix explains that she was chosen to be part of the assassination team because she was a KGB "honeytrap" agent, who was never given "spy" training nor even basic firearms training--Huh? What do they have in common? They find themselves romantically bound together by their mutual love of money and crass materialism. Really--they actually say that. How romantic! Essentially, they are both prostitutes, by choice.

A French intelligence agent (originally asked by the British for assistance), instead sells the location of Carver and Alix (in Geneva)to the Russians (for $500,000), and (even brighter), then betrays the Russians to British Intelligence (for a price). The Russian gangsters kidnap the frog, extract the information, and kill him. Who coulda foreseen that unfortunate event? Carver eludes the Russians, but they rescue their agent, Alix--for whom the reunion should have been a happy event.

So Carver arranges to be smuggled on a sailboat into Britain to look for her----Huh? The sailboat belongs to a friend and former brother-in arms. He brings along their former commanding officer to help crew the boat, who unfortunately happens to run the "operations unit" of the "Consortium", and who tries to murder Carver. Talk about rotten luck! The commander's plan was to drug the boat's owner, then shoot Carver, with the boat wildly pitching in a gale, (and then manage the sailboat by himself). It would have been much simpler to drug Carver too and tie him up or throw him overboard to drown, but we can't let logic interfere with the story.

It seems to be implied that "the Consortium" was a very shadowy, secretive, organization created for the sole purpose of arranging the assassination. Therefore, I would expect them to disband or at least "lie low" for a while after sponsoring the assassination of the century. Instead, days afterward, "the Consortium" still has a secretary answering the phone! The "Consortium" is described as having limited funds and therefore, knowing that Carver will be killed, somehow manage for the Swiss bank to report to Carver that the funds were received, but they don't bother actually transferring the funds. How does a private, foreign, "consortium" put that much pressure on a Swiss Bank? But they do have the cash to send a hit team to brutally exterminate the Swiss banker and his family.

For action junkies, "The Accident Man" contains plenty of action, suspense, murder, torture, etc.. For more critical readers, the convoluted, contrived, far-fetched events are just too much to stomach. In the hands of Donald Westlake this story could have been a hilarious comedy, but as written, falls short.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent First Thriller, December 4, 2010

By 

Neil G. Matthews (Adelaide, South Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Accident Man: A Novel (Paperback)

This is an excellent first thriller by the author, with a clever and believable plot. I found it hard to put the book down as the pace is fairly evenly maintained throughout over 500 pages - with most of the plot occurring in just one action packed week in Switzerland and England. As has been commented elsewhere, the hero's behaviour does come across as inconsistent at times, although the author does provide valid reasons for this. I'll be looking forward to reading more of this author's work.