The Accident by Chris Pavone

This started so well. A manuscript, with a secret that someone famous doesn't want shared is shared with an agent. And then a publisher, and then the agent's assistant is murdered, and then someone else makes an illicit copy, and what is going to happen? 

Is the famous person who doesn't want this published going to murder all who lay eyes on it? Is it going to "go viral"? Is a failing publishing house going to use this as a job-saving income-producing deliverer from the perils of bankruptcy? And who are all these eyes -  by turns researching, stalking, protecting and then running, or defending themselves with deadly precision?

I liked Isabel, the agent, and enjoyed the publishing anecdotes and the tension around how this story could destroy so much, and also - in the way of truth - set others free. Yet, as the pressure built, and the stakes increased, I found the pages turning more slowly, and my head more often inclining to one side - really? Is it that plausible? And they got that upset about that? And so, in the final revelations and consummations, it felt more like a water-logged wrinkled copy than a lit and set the world alight piece of literature.

Still worth the read though, and a diverting (and coincidentally fairly relevant) premise.

3 stars.

ISBN: 9780571298945

You may also enjoy The Killing Lessons by Saul Black, or what about John Grisham's Camino Island?