Accidents Happen

Against all odds, literally, Kate Parker is struggling to salvage her sanity; her relationship with her 10-year-old son, Jack; and some scrap of hopefulness in this compelling second psychological thriller from the author of The Playdate (2012). A decadelong string of disasters—including her parents’ death in a freak car crash the night of her wedding—has reduced Kate from a dynamic young woman living a Tatler-ready London life with her husband and business partner, Hugo, to an emotionally wracked widow in East Oxford, who obsessively calculates the chances of various calamities, like contracting a disease from drinking at a juice bar. Then, amazingly, she meets someone who might actually be able to help her—charismatic statistician Jago Martin, who challenges her to master her fears through a series of increasingly risky dares. Although in hindsight some plot elements prove less than credible, readers will root for Kate and Jack as they navigate their way through a labyrinth of intersecting lives and lies in a heady page-turner that should appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series. (June)