Friday, May 23, 2014

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #43

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It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:
  • Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
  • The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.
Today I'm featuring:
The Accident 
 
BeginningPrologue
He awakens suddenly, in terror.  He spins his head around the spare room, searching the darkest shadows in the blue wash of moonlight, sitting bolt upright, head cocked, alert for noises.  He reaches his hand across his body, and grabs the gun.

Part 1:  Morning
Chapter 1
 
It's just before dawn when Isabel Reed turns the final sheet of paper.  Halfway down the page, her mouth falls open, her heartbeat quickens.  Her eyes dart across each typescript line at a rapid-fire pace, accelerating as she moves through the final paragraph, desperate to arrive at a revelation, to confirm her suspicions.  She sucks in her breath, and holds that breath, for the last lines.

*********************
Page 56: "Alexis pushes open the door, steps inside, shuts the door behind her.  She turns away from her door, into her apartment--

A man is standing on the far side of the room, holding the manuscript."

*********************
From GoodreadsAs dawn approaches in New York, literary agent Isabel Reed is turning the final pages of a mysterious, anonymous manuscript, racing through the explosive revelations about powerful people, as well as long-hidden secrets about her own past. In Copenhagen, veteran CIA operative Hayden Gray, determined that this sweeping story be buried, is suddenly staring down the barrel of an unexpected gun. And in Zurich, the author himself is hiding in a shadowy expat life, trying to atone for a lifetime’s worth of lies and betrayals with publication of The Accident, while always looking over his shoulder.

Over the course of one long, desperate, increasingly perilous day, these lives collide as the book begins its dangerous march toward publication, toward saving or ruining careers and companies, placing everything at risk—and everyone in mortal peril.  The rich cast of characters—in publishing and film, politics and espionage—are all forced to confront the consequences of their ambitions, the schisms between their ideal selves and the people they actually became.

The action rockets around Europe and across America, with an intricate web of duplicities stretching back a quarter-century to a dark winding road in upstate New York, where the shocking truth about the accident itself is buried.

Gripping, sophisticated, layered, and impossible to put down,
The Accident proves once again that Chris Pavone is a true master of suspense.
 
Have you read this book or Pavone's previous book, The Ex Pats?  Which book are you reading now?
 
Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #43 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.    
 

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