After reading the book description I didn't think much else could happen. How wrong I was ! Lots of twists making this an excellent debut novel and well worth a read.

A great debut thriller from SD Monaghan. I started reading this and so much happened at the beginning (this doesn't contain spoilers as all are listed in the description of the book) with Eva cheating on her husband, David, with the builder Ryan, David seeing them and then David punching Ryan and the latter falling to his death over the balcony he had yet to finish building... I thought we'll that's the action packed summary of the book where on earth can it go from here? I was very wrong to flippantly dismiss the book and the author works hard to maintain the reader's interest by keeping up this high octane level of drama throughout the novel.
This is a really exciting debut from SD Monaghue and I look forward to reading his next book. Highly recommend this book.

The Accident was a great book that hooked me in from the first few pages.
Plenty of twists and turns that had me guessing throughout, and I was completely wrong.

DNF @ 70%.

Some books I request from Netgalley then wonder what I was thinking after I've been accepted and go back and read the blurb. A guy punches another guy out of a door who falls three storeys to his death. How is the author going to make a whole book out of this and not be boring? Well, he didn't. I'm not a fan of long chapters so when I got to chapter four and saw it was 19% of the book, things only went downhill from there. I got some boring voice on my phone to read this to me while I puttered around the house. Then I started aggressively skimming, skipping a chapter completely about the past. I don't care. I want to know what happened to Ryan. And then I read that their cat was decapitated. That was the end for me. I didn't read another word after that. I couldn't care less what happened to Ryan or anyone else. The writing wasn't that great. Boring, tedious, repetitious. I hated all the characters (except for the cat!) Some things were unnecessarily morbid. What a waste of my time.

These one sitting reads are getting to be a bit of a habit for me of late, I just can’t seem to stop picking them up, and this was just another fabulous example, I absolutely adored this book. It’s a great read, you name it, it’s got it all, lies & deceit, blackmail, murder, and even some neighbour from hell moments that lighten the mood.

With layers of plots to unravel, it will trip you up with another twist every time you think you might have a handle on what it actually going on.

I also particularly enjoyed the characters in this book, well written and believable I totally bought into each of them from the naive Tara, to her hardworking husband, even to the point of taking a distinct dislike to the slimy architect Gordon.

Now we’re heading towards the cooler months, if you are looking for an enjoyable rainy day read, this one comes recommended by me.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Not sure what to say about this book, read it and quite enjoyed it but honestly don't know why.

What would you do if your future were dependent on the outcome of one bad decision, made in an emotional moment, that couldn't be undone? 

That is the question facing David, a college professor who is about to move into his custom home fashioned by himself and his artist wife Tara. The beautiful Tara is also pregnant, so the couple are living the dream. 

Only the dream has become a nightmare. 

On the night before they move into their dream house, David stops by to check in one last time, to see the blank canvas of his future before him. But what he sees is a pair of black panties on the floor, and he knows that they belong to his wife. They clearly weren't removed for him, so David is infuriated to find out that it was for his builder, Ryan. 

After Tara leaves, too occupied to notice him or his car in the dark, David confronts Ryan, pushing him backwards to convey his anger with the builder. Only, Ryan didn't finish the job. The railing that David had repeatedly asked him to put up on the balcony hadn't been done yet. And when Ryan tumbles down to the ground, David feels his perfect life slipping away. 

And the everything goes black. 

When David wakes up the next morning, no one seems the wiser. Ryan's body is gone, so David thinks that Ryan got up and took himself to the hospital. But when David learns the truth of what happened after that terrible accident, he realizes that his nightmare is only beginning.

S.D. Monaghan's twisty psychological thriller grabs you from the beginning and takes you on a crazy ride. Like any great roller coaster, it takes you way up high to start, drops you down fast, mellows out in the middle to let you catch your breath, and then saves the biggest surprises for the end. And The Accident is worth the price of the ticket. 



Galleys for The Accident were provided by Bookouture through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

David thinks life is great. He and his wife Tara are just about to move into their dream home and their expecting a baby. But when David drops in unexpectedly one evening he witnesses Tara and his builder Ryan saying goodbye after an adulterous tryst. He faces off against Ryan and one unlucky punch send Ryan plummeting out of a window and down three storeys. In the wake of Taras selfish decision and David's heated response their lives are changed forever.

This was an up and down book for me. Whilst it was enjoyable it was also very predictable. And it's hard to feel sympathy for a character (Tara) who not only has an affair while pregnant (ewww) but reasons she did because she was happy and needed to 'bookend her previous life. Yeah right tell that one to the divorce lawyer! Anyway David is a lot easier to sympathise with but he's also a bit of a drip. Yeah he has his moments but he's so pathetically grateful for having Tara in his life. The other thing that bugged me a little is this is set in my spiritual and ancestral home Dublin but it could have been set in Norwich. It didn't feel like there was any character of the Irish in this at all. I'm not saying I was expecting any 'foightin' and other stereotypes but some character of the setting would have been nice. And yet despite all this criticism I did quite like this book. Tara and David are thrown from one disaster to the next and by the end it's fair to say the author does show them growing as people through the story so by the end they are both easier to like (a bit). It's action packed throughout so if you want a quick and undemanding read this could well be the book for you. 3.5 stars

Set in Ireland and mainly within the confines of an old, Georgian house the reader is immediately faced with mistrust, deception, betrayal, secrets, guilt, desire, greed, fear, anger and desperation on all levels.

The opening chapters were descriptive and grabbed my interest immediately! In fact, WTAF escaped my lips not long into the pages of this book and I just had to keep reading! I found it to be a fast paced plot which was blanketed in some superb narrative – My mind was racing through wondering what the hell happened and I found myself coming up with some ridiculous answers because I JUST HAD TO KNOW! 🤣 There were quite a few twists that caught me off guard and the way the story wrapped up — a total….jaw..on…the…floor moment! Well done, Mr Monaghan!!

I loved the way the characters came together in this intricate and elaborate web of secrets and lies! David must have been going crazy, wondering if his secret would be exposed. I took an instant dislike to Ryan and his arrogance…can’t say I wasn’t smiling when what happened to him happened! #MyBad. I didn’t really warm to Tara at all. She annoyed me with her childlike, babyish ways – She needed a good dose of reality! But I loved that the author could evoke those feelings in me – we don’t have to like a character as a reader – but if they work within a story – well, that is what it is all about! And Tara worked…perfectly! Christine…HA! Bloody loved her! Messed up, manipulative…a grade “A” b*tch and somewhat proud of it! Fabulous character!! Then there is Fenton! Jaysus…that’s all I have to say about that! I can’t really go too much into things as I don’t want to spoil the story, the motive or the outcome of this brilliant domestic thriller! I just kept thinking…”could it get any worse” for some of these peeps!? It could…and it certainly did! 🙌🏻 Woohoo!

Would I recommend The Accident! Erm…let me see…🤔 ….Oh HELL BLOODY YEAH, I would! Dark and devious with breath-taking suspense, this domestic noir style thriller will leave you wanting more from this author!

A good, quick read! Full review to come soon! Thanks to NG for the opportunity to review this book.

I felt that The Accident was a slow burner for me, I nearly stopped reading within the first couple of chapters but I'm VERY glad I kept going!

Clever, dark and twisted a very entertaining read!

I received my copy from NetGalley as an ARC but the opinions are mine!

When I first read this synopsis I was drawn in right away. The story takes off right away with David learning that his pregnant wife, Tara has slept with Ryan. When he confronts Ryan they fight and Ryan falls many stories to his death. However, the next morning his body is missing. This was a fast paced novel full of mini cliff hangers and unlikable characters. The ending had a good twist that was unpredictable. This novel had a great plot but I felt it fell short in the quality of writing. I did not like the dialogue. It felt awkward and drawn out at times however the descriptive portions of this novel were enjoyable.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

A great quality immersive read. I hope to read another book by this author

I truly enjoyed this story. Tara and David are a married couple, who are expecting and having their dream home built. David observes something that causes serious issues in his life and marriage. Alternating between the past and the present, this story draws you in and kept me interested until the end.

This is a debut thriller from S. D. Monaghan, and I will definitely be looking forward to his next book. The concept of this novel is very interesting, and for the most part I think Monaghan pulled it off well. It was an enjoyable read.

This book grabs you eight from the beginning and keeps your curiosity peaked the whole way through. A seemingly perfect marriage is suddenly thrown off track by one selfish act, leaving the couple wondering if they can work together to survive. Several chapters end with cliffhangers, but the chapter that follows usually changed course. This sometimes toned down the suspense until it ramps up again where the cliffhanger eventually picks back up. There are several unexpected twists throughout that jeep the suspense high and the story flowing, leading to an action packed and satisfying conclusion.

I would recommend this book to fans of thrillers and suspense. I received this as a free ARC from Bookotoure on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I struggled between giving this book 3 or 4 stars (ideally it's 3 and a half), I settled with 3 mainly because I had trouble connecting with the characters for the first part of the book. While the action begins immediately, it took me 4 or 5 chapters to start identifying the characters. It wasn't until their backstory was revealed more that I began to feel involved with the story.

Having said that, the action and twists are great. David and Tara are finally getting everything they dreamed of in the shape of their newly finished dream home. But a dreadful discovery that results in an accident changes all that. Like I said, the action begins in the first few pages and doesn't let go. Once I had more of a backstory of the characters, I was fully immersed in the story and didn't want to put the book down. A definite 3 and a half star read. Would have been 4 if I connected quicker with David and Tara.

David met Tara five years ago, when he was a 35-year-old history lecturer at Dublin's Trinity College and she was a 25-year-old student in his class. David was very taken with the beautiful young woman, who was smart and had 'curious brown eyes, full lips, and free-falling auburn hair.' At the time, Tara was dating a working class bloke named Ryan, and David reluctantly kept his distance.....even after the class ended.

Eighteen months later David happened to see Tara again, displaying her original paintings at a sidewalk art show. David and Tara began to chat and - due to a rainstorm and happenstance - David helped Tara sell several paintings to a very rich American buyer.

Skip ahead a few years and David and Tara are married. Tara is a wealthy, successful artist and David functions as her business manager while still teaching and pursuing his Ph.D. degree. The sudden prosperity is a big change for the couple, who grew up in rough, impoverished neighborhoods.

David and Tara - who are expecting a child - have renovated a huge home on Lawrence Court, and are about to move into 'the best house on the best street in Dublin.' Ironically, Tara's old boyfriend Ryan is the builder who's upgrading the mansion under the direction of Gordon - a snobby blueblood architect who looks down his privileged nose at all of them.

On the evening before David and Tara are scheduled to move into their gorgeous (but not quite completed) new house, David decides to stop by on a whim - to look the place over and revel in his good fortune. David is shocked to see Tara kissing Ryan, and - after she drives off - finds her panties on the floor. Furious and hurt, David confronts the builder- whose tan, muscled, tattooed body is clad only in jeans. The two men argue and tussle, and Ryan falls off the unfinished balcony. Looking down, David sees that Ryan has fallen three floors into a pit, and appears to be bloody and dead.

David starts to run downstairs to check on the builder, but accidently knocks himself out. When David wakes up the next morning, there's no body and no pit. Instead, there's a patio with freshly laid limestone and travertine slabs. Ryan's workers have inadvertently buried the body!

Before long Ryan is an official missing person, and David doesn't know what to do. If he goes to the police, he'll be accused of murder. And - though David is very angry at Tara - he still wants to be with her and the baby. While David is mulling it all over, he's hit with terrible news. Someone knows he killed Ryan and wants a HUGE amount of blackmail money to keep mum. So much moola, in fact, that David and Tara will lose EVERYTHING they own and be forced to live in poverty.

What to do....what to do? That's what David has to decide. Should he confess? Kill himself? Pay the extortion money? And there's an added problem. David and Tara's neighbor, Shay, comes over to report that something under their new patio is blocking the sewer - and smelly, disgusting sludge is backing up into his house. Shay insists that the builders fix the problem immediately. If not, he'll take matters into his own hands.

The story alternates between the present - where David has to deal with Ryan's unexpected demise, and the past - where David and Tara meet and embark on their relationship. This literary device works up to a point but results in too many cliffhangers, which is annoying and impedes the continuity of the story.

The book's plot is engaging, with plenty of twists and turns - some of which the astute reader may guess (or maybe not. LOL). The villains are appropriately venomous, and I was hoping they would get their just deserts. However, I didn't find the 'good guys' totally likable either. David's 'mooning' over Tara - 'her presence, her voice, her warmth, her mind, her art, her body, her gaze' - was too adolescent and soppy for my taste. And Tara - when confronted with her adultery - couldn't understand David's anger. 'David was suddenly a stranger to her. The David she knew would try to understand.' (Understand her shagging another - much hunkier - guy? Are you kidding me?!)

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable psychological thriller, good for a few hours entertainment.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (S.D. Monaghan), and the publisher (Bookouture) for a copy of the book.

Thank you so much NetGalley & Bookouture for sending me the book! What really caught my eye when I requested the book was the cover & the synopsis. The book is a really good one where the twists made it even better. It’s told from David’s POV mostly & has short chapters. The way the book is written is great, it was interesting from the beginning. I honestly thought that the plot was going to be one of those over-done plots but it really was well done. I mainly wanted to see how far would Tara & David really go to save everything they have.

Haunting...sily riveting, It is to tame to say I read this.

I experienced it.

And its bold, yet subtle darkness held me captive.

The book begins with Tara and David moving into their dream home with a perfect life ahead of them. Then their lives fall apart and change for ever with 'the accident'. This is not s a fast paced thriller, and a little slow at times, but it is a good story with some twists and turns along the way with an unexpected conclusion.. As a debut novel, it is cetainly worth a read and I look forward to reading S. D. Monaghan's next book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.