After the Accident: A compelling and addictive psychological suspense novel

If you like the unreliable narrator mode of story telling, you'll love this book because every voice is unreliable. After the Accident, pre-publication title Seven Days in July, recounts the stories of eleven people vacationing together in order to be together one last time before the Emma's mother succumbs to her illness. Actually, there may be other motivations that slowly unfold, depending who you believe. And that's the initial hook of this book, the quick jumps as the events on the island are told in chronological order, but not from a single perspective. Emma is our primary narrator, but quite often, the responses of of the others interject. It's clear the stories were being told individually to someone, but the narration makes you feel like you're sitting all in a room and people are interjecting and interrupting to challenge assertions and make their points. When I started, I thought this was going to be too confusing, but it wasn't at all. The use of Emma as our main narrator provided a constant, albeit an unreliable one. The narration of this book really exposes the implicit and explicit biases from each character's perspective. This narrative style could have worn off easily enough, and I'm glad that supporting it, or being supported by it, was a well developed plot that kept me up so I could find out what really happened. Or what each character says happened... No spoilers here, but it was refreshing that the style was not there to hide a weak plot, it's a fun story to read. I am sure that when I read other's reviews there are going to be a lot of differing opinions on the ending, I for one really like how it ends.

It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Churchill said that about Russia but it refers perfectly to After the Accident by Kerry Wilkinson. The unusual, inventive format reads like non-fiction and has not one point of view but purports to be based on many interviews with people who were on a remote Mediterranean island when crimes may or may not have happened. Wealthy businessman Geoffrey McGinley has brought his entire family and others to Galanikos for the first time in nine years. During the last visit, his business partner Alan fell to his death from a cliff. This time, it is Geoff who falls but survives. What really happened and why? Emma, his daughter with a tragic past, is the most frequent narrator and this becomes her story. Her words are compelling yet unreliable. Her brother Julius contradicts her, as do his young twin daughters. Geoff tells a different story, as does his business partner Daniel and his family. Adding to the mystery surrounding the fall are several local residents and a film crew making a documentary about Alan’s fall. Does this sound confusing? It is? It is also totally captivating. The plot twists and turns is so many ways that it is impossible to guess the ending… and then what happens in the next chapter. You will not be able to stop reading! 5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and Kerry Wilkinson for this ARC.

“I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in return for an honest review.” Oh my God, This book was so so addicting! I just couldn’t stop reading it and frankly speaking if I didn’t have my studies to think about I would actually have finished it in one go, it was just so engaging, engrossing, ya… running out of adjectives now. This book had a feeling of suspense throughout and there were so many twists and turns in this tale that it kept you on the edge of the seat till the very last page. After the Accident is written in an interview format for the most part of the book. And personally this format worked really well from me. I could almost imagine a room in my head where all the characters were brought in and the camera frame moved from one character to another and their statements formed a seamless narrative. I really loved this format because we got to see so many emotions.