I loved the blurb of this. An accident. A few minutes that changed the lives of one couple. We hear the story through David and Tara, the married couple at the core of this story. Happily married, building a dream home with a baby on the way. All should be perfect but a wrong choice by both leads to a series of catastrophic events and decisions. I found this more of an action type story than a thriller and think it would make a great TV drama. However, I did not really warm to the characters. A few cliched types. A good, easy read though.

Was just too slow for me. I'm sure there's a great twist at the end but I gave to half way through I'm afraid

So sorry but I could not get into this book at all. It started off well when David finds out that Tara is having an affair with Ryan who helped build their dream home. He confronts him and one punch sends him plummeting to his death. His body miraculously disappears and nobody sees him. It just felt completely unbelievable and I gave up at that point.

This was an excellent mystery that takes you through the thoughts and emotions of a seemingly happy couple facing the consequences of their hastily made mistakes. This book focused not only on the accident and its consequences, but on the way the couple's minds race as they debate how to fix their lives. It was the story of the secrets we bury and the dirt we get on our hands in doing so.

I liked reading about this couple's rise to success, and their rise to becoming a couple. The husband comes from impoverished beginnings, but he turned their life into something to be envied (or resented). But as with every success story, the couple has far more to lose than ever before, and they face losing it all with one accident.

The way the couple was haunted by their accident, by both nosy neighbors, curious family members, and jealous acquaintances, was brilliant. I took the guilt ride right along with them, and I felt nauseous at times as I wondered how WE would get out of this mess.

I also liked the flashbacks, which served to educate the reader more on the couple's history together and apart. I would have liked even more of them.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a thrilling read and who appreciates a book that takes you on the guilt ride along with the characters.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
David and Tara have just finished building their dream mansion home. David is a History teacher and the local university and Tara is an artist, who made it big, that’s where the money came from to build their home. When, one evening, David comes home to find his wife kissing the builder and ex-boyfriend of Tara’s, Ryan.
The next day, after a spell of heavy drinking, David confronts Ryan and punches him, only for him to fall off the unfinished balcony. David then blacks out unconscious. The starts a series of events. Has anyone witnessed what went on?
I liked the premise of this story. It was well written and you can feel the intensity of story. The characters were well developed. I thought it was a good Psychological thriller. It is worth reading but, for me it didn’t blow me away. I thought towards the end of the story, it got a bit too farfetched. 3 stars for me.

If you enjoyed Toni Collette's short-lived TV show "Hostages", you'll enjoy S.D. Monaghan's The Accident. When David catches his wife, Tara, fooling around with Ryan, their houses's builder, on the night before they're set to move in, everything changes for David. He confronts Ryan and punches him -- then he falls out an upstairs window where David rightly presumes he's dead. That takes up about the first twenty or thirty pages. Once the community figures out Ryan is missing, David, and eventually Tara, are backed into a corner. Do they go to the police and tell them Ryan fell out the window by mistake or enter into a shady blackmail agreement that will deplete their bank account and change their life forever? Monaghan does a convincing job of displaying what all of the characters are going through emotionally and mentally as a result of this incident, but if you're looking for a book full of action, you may want to look elsewhere.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book as an arc.
I really enjoyed the first half of the book which introduces us to Tara and David, a Dublin couple who are about to move into their dream home. However, Tara decides to have a final fling with old boyfriend Ryan and has sex with him in the new house on the night before the move. A fight ensues when David discovers what has happened and the repercussions come thick and fast. I enjoyed learning about the past lives of the three main characters and how they all came to know each other.
I also felt very sorry for the neighbours when the damage to the drainage on the new house caused their house to flood with all sorts of nastiness! There was a thread of dark humour apparent at times which I enjoyed. However, I felt the second half of the book lost its way a wee bit. It started to resemble a gangster scenario with blackmail, drug running and psycho killers being introduced. I think the story just became a bit too convoluted which spoiled the book for me.

The Accident by S.D. Monaghan had the perfect setup to be a fast-paced thriller. Unfortunately, it was not thrilling until about 75% into the story line. We meet the main characters moments before “The Accident” occurs. After catching his wife Tara having an affair with their contractor in their newly built home, David engages Ryan in a fight. It is a brief fight before Ryan falls out of the window. Dave doesn’t exactly regret hitting Ryan, but he didn’t want to kill him. What follows is Dave’s struggle between doing what is morally right versus what instincts tell him to do, protect his family from the damage of murder.

The book shifts between the perspectives of Dave and Tara and I found that helpful. I needed to understand the motivations inside of Tara’s head. Considering that in the first chapter we learn she’s ten years younger than Dave and is cheating on him in their brand new custom home, I can’t say I thought much of her. Ya, I judged her. Sorry, not sorry. Getting inside her head allowed me to understand her reasoning even if it was thin and flimsy. Dave is not such a bad character, but Tara had no redeeming qualities for me. She cheated on her husband, and later under serious stress makes some poor choices, while pregnant. I realize it’s a fictional story but that really ground my gears.

Don’t underestimate the power of dialogue.

The story didn’t have enough dialogue between characters to keep me entertained. The story didn’t get exciting until about the 45% mark, and part of what helped at that point was a slight increase in the amount of character interaction. The beginning of the story shifts between what happened, and the history of how Dave and Tara got together. This method usually works well in books but in this case it irritated me. I felt that it fell flat because the characters were musing on inside their own heads for much too long. It carried on and on and it made me put the book down for a few days.

This story missed the mark just a little bit. A little more interaction between characters would have helped keep things interesting. The intense character interactions didn’t really occur until about 70% and it was just a little too late by then.

Wow, this is a brilliant debut novel from S D Monaghan. Tense and claustrophobic, once you start reading this you won’t be able to stop.

David and Tara have it all. Tara has made a fortune from her paintings and they have just completed building work on a luxury new home in a prestigious part of town. David is riding high, a man who originated from the local estate; he sometimes can’t believe his luck that he managed to escape. But in the opening pages of the book he discovers that his pregnant wife, Tara has slept with her former boyfriend, Ryan, the man who has helped to build their home. David’s world is torn apart and one wrong move on his part leads to devastating consequences for them all. Is everything David and Tara worked for about to come to a crushing end?

Once I started reading this book I couldn’t stop. The opening pages had me gripped and I was desperate to know how David was going to get himself out of the situation he now found him in. What follows is a twisty ride as David and Tara’s world begins to spiral out of control. There were some really tense scenes in this book, the tension was heightened by the fact that Tara was pregnant as well and there was that fear that she could lose the baby.

S D Monaghan character’s kept me gripped throughout the novel. There were times when I struggled to like both David and Tara but they were both really intriguing characters. I was interested to learn about their background, particularly as Tara was once David’s student and it made for gripping reading to learn how they met and how this subsequently blossomed into a relationship. I also found David’s background interesting, particularly as he had come from a deprived area and had managed to escape.

A really good debut from S D Monaghan, he’s a writer that I will be keeping an eye on. Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the advance reading copy and to Noelle Holton for the place on the blog tour.

The Accident S.D. Monaghan


That knee-jerk reaction that changes your life.

How many people have got up in the morning with a completely innocent life behind them, and then walked into a situation which has made them lash out.

One fight, one punch, one totally unexpected outcome, and everything changes.

University Lecturer Dave, and his pretty wife Tara, are about to move into their dream home, a million pound plus refurb on an exclusive street.

The day before they move in Dave goes for one last look at the house and sees his wife sneaking out and kissing Ryan, the head builder.

When Dave sneaks into the house and finds a pair of his wife’s panties, a used condom, a wet tissue and a guilty looking Ryan in an upstairs room he snaps.

During a short fight and Ryan falls through an open French window and falls three floors into the pit dug for foundations of an ornament in the back garden.

As Dave runs to see if Ryan is dead he gets hit on the head and loses consciousness. When he comes around the next morning, the pit is filled and the patio and ornament are laid. There is no sign of Ryan.

Has he woken up and run off? Dave thinks he may have misjudged the injuries and that Ryan has disappeared.

Then the blackmail starts. Somebody saw what happened and wants to ruin Dave.

Is everything as it seems? Why are the Police interested in Ryan for other reasons than his wife has reported him missing? what else is he involved in?

All of this in the first 40 or so pages and what follows is a good story with some interesting twists along the way.

But as good as this story is, it is a bit slow and ponderous. This is not a fast-paced thriller, along the lines of most modern crime fiction, more of a Mid Summers Murder paced plod.

This book started out fantastic and I had high hopes for it. The premise is really interesting and the characters get themselves into a mess right away making the reader want to know more. I enjoyed this book until about two thirds of the way through it and then I mostly lost interest in the things that were happening because it kept repeating the same thoughts and ideas.

I stuck with it and finished it, but by the end, I wasn't excited enough to care much about what happened to the characters. The plot was twisty in places, and the writing wasn't bad, but it just wasn't what I was hoping it would turn out to be. I still enjoyed the beginning a lot.

Overall this was an okay read, but there were some things I didn't love.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This was a pretty good story. David and Tara seemed like a mismatched couple who both harbored insecurites within themselves and their relationship. All of the characters were all pretty unlikeable, so I didn't feel any empathy for any of them. I did like the plot twist at the end but it seemed a little rushed. All in all, a good story for fans of psychologial thrillers.

The story starts out with a bang! David is in front of their newly completed home when he sees his wife Tara kissing another man! He is hiding in his BMW so he is not seen by them. The scenario gets very interesting when he confronts the man after his wife drives away! David loses his temper and does something that could cause him to lose everything!

I liked how the story evolved around the accident that occurred and the events that evolved. The story became a bit frantic and rushed for me. The second half seemed to take a wild direction and I didn't think what happened to their pet was necessary (for me). I wanted a less sensational conclusion because it was just not believable to me. I did enjoy the fast pace and suspense and I'm sure many will enjoy the twists and the darker moments that evolved! I was not expecting the twist that occurred. Having a faster pace, this one may be able to hold your interest!

This book wasn't interesting to me at all. I actually stopped reading after a few chapters, and skipped to the end to see how it ended. It seemed like it you were interested in the book, the ending would be pretty good, but it just wasn't my cup of tea, I guess. I got turned off when there started to be blackmailing and didn't like either main characters by that point, either. So, overall, not for me, but I'm sure some people will like it!

What an introduction to keep you enthralled. I was thrown straight into a seductive story of a husband being at the wrong place at the wrong time. If only he had gone about his usual routine instead…

Tara and David have just built their “forever” home to raise their unborn baby in. Tara is an artist who has funded this extravagant house build and also allows David to follow his passion of being a lowly paid historian. Tara, being ten years younger than David, decides to have one last blow-out before she 100% settles down with the rest of her life. She ends up sleeping with one of the builders on the job who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Unbeknownst to Tara, David actually catches them out with their dirty little secret. So what should have just been a one-night stand ends up going horribly wrong.

The Accident is a tale full of secrets which I read swiftly. This story is a classic case of “I did not see that coming”. I was mesmerised with the baddies and really felt for Tara and David as they desperately try to find their way out of what can only be described as a big black hole.

The dialogue is lifelike and the relationships involved in the novel are realistic, although I would have preferred a different ending. Can’t quite put my finger on what though, but just something a little bit more believable. When I have figured it out then perhaps I will update this review! This story for me is a 3.5 star read upgraded to 4 as it was entertaining, and I think many people would enjoy the dark events that take place.

I have a feeling that we will be seeing more from S. D. Monaghan in the future.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for supplying me with an advanced copy to read in return for a review.

Copies of the book are available to download on Amazon for 99p from the 1st September.

My final word: Gutsy.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for this review. I found the premise very interesting - David finds his pregnant wife, the love of his life, cheating on him. Instead of going home and letting on that he caught her - the husband confronts the man. And by confronts, I mean punches him right over a faulty railing in David's brand new, luxurious house that he and his wife will be moving into shortly.

I was looking forward to seeing how the aftermath unfolded, but unfortunately found the writing to be dense and the book to plod along at a very....slow....pace. I enjoyed reading a bit about how David and his wife, Tara, met but even though the story was told third-person from each of their perspectives, I did not feel like I got to know - or particularly like - either of them all that much. That made it a bit difficult to root for them as a couple to get out of this mess.

The plot twist toward the end was not a surprising or shocking to me, but I enjoyed reading the last action scene - although somewhat unrealistic, it moved at a quicker pace than the rest of book.

Thank you Netgalley for this preview!

I was looking for an addictive, fast read when I picked this thriller and that is how the story started out. It begins on a high note on the night when David found out that his wife was having an affair with Ryan. As explained in the blurb, David punched Ryan sending him tumbling down from a three storey building. The drama begins right from the first chapter.

There is so much that happens in the story to build up tension. I could feel the frustration and terror as Tara and David’s lives got shuttered in just that one night. In addition, there are subplots within the main story. Without giving away a lot, let me just say that there were ‘friends’ with selfish motives, suspicious characters, neighbors not staying on their side of the fence, a murder to cover-up, police showing up uninvited… the drama was full-swing.

The story is narrated through two POVs. There are alternating chapters between David and Tara which helped in moving the plot forward and providing the missing puzzle pieces. The writing was quite addictive. I couldn’t put down the book until the last page. In addition, the author did a great job in providing the backstories of the MCs without taking the focus away from the main events. Another thing that stood out for me is the small cast of characters in this crazy story. There are like only four MCs with a handful support characters. This made it easy to focus on the people at the heart of the story.

However, I felt like the story was a bit rushed. I know, I know… I wanted something fast but not that way. Things were just getting crazier and I got lost a couple of times.I think that this is the kind of story that requires suspension of belief.The suspense was still there for the most part but something was missing. Another issue that I had was that I didn’t like any of the characters. Some characters were more unappealing than others but generally, I couldn’t connect or sympathize with any of them.

Nevertheless, I still recommend this thriller to fans of psychological thrillers. If you enjoy stories that have multiple plot-lines that you may like this one. In this story, one of the plot-lines is about a marriage in trouble. There is also a murder and an attempt to get away with it plus people who aren’t who they seem and another action-packed story-line that I won’t mention so as not to spoil the book for those who haven’t read it. All these story-lines are intertwined to create this entertaining thriller.

I liked this book because it was pretty fast-paced and suspenseful for the most part. The writing was really amazing but I wasn't totally crazy about the main characters. They seems to have a perfect life, David and Tara, but Tara has a tryst with her former lover and David catches them, reacting severely causing the titular accident. The story following is intense and intriguing but I just didn't care that much about David and Tara. It picked up some with the ending but still was a little rushed although unexpected as well. Not my favorite book of the year but it was still pretty a decent read!

From the cover I knew this would be my cup of tea. The plot is gripping, and will leave you shocked throughout (unlike some where it's only the ending) Fantastic characters, kept me hooked throughout!

this book grabs you right from the beginning and does not let go. David and Tara have just finished building their dream home... and then it all goes wrong. its a great story with twists you don't see coming. a big thanks to netgalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book to read and review