Blog Tour: Day of the Accident by Nuala Ellwood Review + Giveaway

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Hi!

I'm delighted to be able to bring you a review and giveaway today as part of the Blog Tour for Nuala Ellwood's latest book, Day of the Accident.

I was very generously sent a physical copy for review (which I then lost, so I bought it on Kindle), and I thought I'd give it away to one of you.

Sixty seconds after she wakes from a coma, Maggie's world is torn apart. 

The police tell her that her daughter Elspeth is dead. That she drowned when the car Maggie had been driving plunged into the river. Maggie remembers nothing.

And when Maggie begs to see her husband, the police tell her that he has disappeared. He was last seen on the day of her daughter's funeral.

What really happened that day at the river?

Where has Maggie's husband gone?

And why can't she shake the suspicion that somewhere, somehow, her daughter is stil alive? 

This was a slow burner, one that picked up pace as we went along. As well as Maggie's story, we are given chapters from a young girl stuck in some kind of institution or home. Is Maggie right, is her daughter really alive and expecting her to come and save her? 

This is clever, fresh, and it has those short chapters that I love so much. I've always said that short chapters suck me in, especially with a thriller - I'm always inclined to read "just one more" when I know it's only a few minutes long. As a result, I couldn't put this one down and kept reading late into the night. 

The story is well crafted, and believable. The characters are well developed. If I could have asked for one more thing, I'd like to have seen more of Maggie's husband (as would she - *ba-doom-tish*).

I did have it mostly figured out by about 80%, but instead of feeling like I had spoiled it, I felt excited to see how it was all going to come out. Because Maggie was suffering from memory loss, any little reveals or tells didn't feel like dripfeeding, they felt like things we were all discovering together.

I really liked the supporting characters, the care staff helping Maggie could have been just fleeting names, but they were real people with real personalities and real stories of their own.

This was a sharp, engaging thriller, and shows that the notorious "difficult second novel" isn't difficult at all when you can write like this. 

Recommended. 

You can buy Day of the Accident from any good book retailer, including

Amazon

Book Depository

Or request it at your local library.

If you'd like to check out the other stops on the blog tour featuring excerpts, interviews and giveaways, you can do so by visiting the bloggers listed on the banner below:

Thanks to all at Penguin for inviting me to take part in this tour and allowing me to read the book early. 

To win the paperback copy, please leave your details in the widget below. I'm really interested to find out what everyone has been reading recently!

T&Cs

This giveaway is open worldwide.

 The winners information will not be shared with any third party, their details will be used for the sole purpose of sending the prize and will not be held on file. 

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