"Fame...is no sure test of merit...it is an accident, not a property of man." Thomas Carlyle

"The Accident" is a thought provoking story dealing with the sale of knock off items by unwary suburbanites attempting to add to their family's incomes. It also details the members of organized crime behind this activity and the revelation that many items were made by young children working in miserable conditions in China and third world countries.

The thrilling story tells of Glen Garber becoming worried when his wife, Sheila, fails to return home from night school. When he attempts to follow the route she would have taken, he comes upon an accident and sees that it's his wife's car. Rushing to the car, police stop him and he learns that his wife did not survive and was apparently drinking and passed out. Two people in another car were also killed in the accident.

One of Sheila's friends, Ann Slocum, is ordered to meet an unnamed man who tells her that he wants his money. We learn that Ann has been selling unregistered pharmaceutical products. Ann meets someone and in a dispute, she falls into the water, hits her head and dies.

Glen has lost so much. There has been a fire in a home he was building and the investigation shows that it was caused by shoddy equipment. With his business problems, Sheila's death and children at Glen's daughter Kelly's school treating her cruelly, he seems surrounded by people intent on harming him and Kelly. The reader can feel for his misfortune but he doesn't ask for sympathy or give up after having his world crumble around him.

Barclay has written a riveting book about a man who demonstrates how one man, acting with conviction, can make a difference.

This was an easy read but the reader should cancel all of their appointments before starting the book because once they begin, they won't be able to stop reading.

I enjoyed the fully developed characters and found myself holding my breath in parts of the book, saying "Oh no!" and in other parts, cheering for Glen.