Accidents Waiting to Happen

Josh Michaels, a young man with a wife and little girl he adored, while driving back to his home in Sacramento, California, is forced off the highway and into the river in what appears to be an accident born from what he thinks of as reckless stupidity on the part of the other driver. But the actions of that driver, before he gets back into his car and speeds away, convince Josh that it is anything but. Josh survives the ‘accident,’ but starts to doubt his ability to continue to survive the ensuing events, all appearing to be accidents by increasingly obviously [to him] staged attempts to end his life. Josh is staggered as he comes to this unavoidable conclusion and cannot believe that he is the target of a killer, but has no choice but to accept this fact and attempt to figure out who wants him dead, and why, if he is to survive. To make matters worse, if that’s possible, past indiscretions and errors in judgment are now coming back to haunt him. At Chapter 4 the reader meets “the professional,” the man hired to kill another person, a woman, as well as Josh. Who has hired him? Is there a connection between the two intended victims [something not readily apparent]? And what is the motive? As ‘the professional’ himself muses, “a seemingly motiveless murder was just as hard to solve as a well-planned accident.” Simon Wood has fashioned an exciting and well-written novel of suspense, with a nail-biting conclusion during which this reader held her breath in anticipation of what new horrors might be in store.