The Accident by Fiona Lowe

Publisher's Synopsis

Freya thought she could relax when Ryan's best mate Jamie got engaged to her best friend Hannah. Two couples, four friends - what could be better than that? But a day before the wedding Freya's torn between keeping the peace or blowing it up.

Hannah's perfect wedding is hours away and she's daydreaming of a honeymoon in Tahiti and starting the family she longs for when she hears the first-responder sirens. Is it a grass fire? Worse? And why aren't Ryan or Jamie answering their phones?

When a car veers off the road with devastating consequences, the small wheatbelt town of Garringarup is left reeling, but no one's worlds are more shattered than Hannah's and Freya's.

As disturbing details surrounding the accident emerge and questions pile up, ugly secrets rise to the surface.

Mystery, lies and scandal - it's soon obvious nothing is as it seems in this small town...

My Review of The Accident by Fiona Lowe

Here we have a close examination of just how difficult it really may be to put your complete trust and belief in someone, even someone you’ve fallen in love with. There may be signs, there may be little glimmers of disquiet, or you may just have to wait for one almighty, life-changing accident to find out the truth about the person you plan to live the rest of your life with.

The Accident starts with the devastating death of a man on the night before his wedding day. Jamie was driving back to the town of Garringarup when the car he was driving crashed into a tree. Hannah, waiting at home for his arrival is understandably broken-hearted. The life they had planned together has been taken away in one unbelievable moment.

It takes some time but Hannah slowly begins to put her life back together with the help of her good friends Freya and Ryan along with Jamie’s parents and others in the town. 

"'The accident was only fifteen kays from the institute.'
'But that makes no sense. Jamie was coming from Perth.' 'Not on that road he wasn't.'
'Wait!' Freya's mind was sliding all over the map that was imprinted on her brain after living in the district for years. 'Are you saying Jamie was driving on the old road Garingarup road?'"

At the back of her mind, though, there are some strange anomalies surrounding the accident scene that just don’t make sense. Following these random threads, it becomes more and more apparent that there was a great deal that Hannah wasn’t aware of and the person she thought she was marrying may not have been quite the perfect man she thought he was.

Small town life has its own set of rules and friendships can be made and broken in an instant. Knowing who you can depend on and finding out who may have other motives can be hard fought and while it may not necessarily prove dangerous, it could very well affect outlooks that have shaped lives.

'You say you're my friend yet you're stealing my chance at happiness and destroying my life because you don't know Jamie as well as you think you do. If you did, you wouldn't be clinging to words he said years ago and a stupid misunderstanding. You're the outlier here. Everyone else will sign and you'll be alone with your principles and good luck with that. I hope they're good company because I don't need you. We're over. I never want to see your traitorous face again.

The Accident is a completely absorbing story that drags you in deeper the further you read. Facts and suppositions are slowly dragged out into the open to create an increasingly compelling story and the growth and development of the main characters, Freya and Hannah, is shaped by numerous curve-balls thrown their way.

The suffering caused by addiction not only affects the person who finds themselves caught up in its thrall. Friends and family are also affected and their lives changed by it too. And there are all different types of addiction playing its part in various characters in The Accident. Big city or small town, the dangers are the same and the devastation just as total.

This is a strong family drama that deals with some of life’s most difficult moments with a deep underlying mystery at its heart. It’s necessary to forgive a slow start so that you can enjoy a far more moving middle and latter portion which I found quite rewarding. The character development is strong, making it possible to get a deep understanding about what’s important to the main characters and their motivations for some of the more controversial decisions they make.