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brianreynolds
Mar 22, 2013
The tipping point of any romance is its hero, and therein lies the problem with Linwood Barclay's page-turner, The Accident. Heroes, of course, need to solve the problems laid out in the story, and Barclay's POV character, building contractor Glen Garber, does just that. Unfortunately, it takes more than success to justify wearing the white Stetson. Heroes need to be loved (or at least be loveable) not just by some damsel in distress, but more importantly by the reader. Garber is a hard sell (somewhat surprising for an Evergreen award winner.) Barclay doesn't help his case by slipping into third person to give the reader background information to which the protagonist couldn't be privy. While the shifts add to the suspense, they do nothing for Garber. But the real problem is Garber's penchant for withholding information in criminal investigations, his recklessness in endangering both himself and others by attempting to investigate serious crimes himself and apprehend criminals known to be dangerous. Garber's frontier style of assault-first-and-ask-questions-later, his exceptional deficit in good judgement, makes him difficult to like, let alone love. The happy ending is more the result of good fortune than anything heroic. (The ending is further spoiled by the conundrum of making the ultimate cliff-hanger a threat to the life of the storyteller. Duh?)