The Accident

Pavone's second novel (after his Edgar Award-winning thriller The Expats) follows several people in the publishing industry as they handle a manuscript that promises tremendous personal gain but, as some soon learn, at risk of death. Isabel Reed, a divorced literary agent, has received a manuscript that promises to be a blockbuster. If true, the book will destroy the career of wealthy media mogul Charles Wolfe, about to launch a political career. He is prepared to have his henchman, Berlin cultural attaché and rogue CIA agent Hayden Gray, kill anyone who gets in his way. Jeff Fielder, also divorced and long enamored of Isabel, is an editor in need of a career-changing book. His boss, deeply in debt, faces a buyout by Wolfe's company. A subsidiary rights director has stolen a copy of the manuscript and heads to Hollywood with visions of grandeur. All are in great danger, not to mention the anonymous author, who may have to "die" twice to survive!