Accidents Happen

Starred review from April 22, 2013
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.

May 15, 2013
Millar's sophomore effort derives its impetus from the idea that, for some people, bad luck is inevitable. Kate lost her parents to a car accident on her wedding night and then, years later, thugs murdered her beloved husband, Hugo. Ever since Hugo's death, Kate has fought depression, not always successfully. Now, she lives with her son Jack in Oxford, England, near her in-laws, and struggles not to lose her mind. Her problem? She can't stop computing the odds that something bad will happen. Whether it's riding her bike without a helmet or crossing the street or someone breaking into her home, Kate is terrified she and Jack will become victims of the same types of crimes that took her parents and husband. So she tries to insulate both herself and Jack from the possibility that something bad could happen to them. She refuses to let Jack go anywhere by himself and wraps them both in a cocoon of alarms, sets unreasonable boundaries and often resorts to bizarre measures. But her husband's parents are horrified at what they see: Kate is quickly turning Jack into a terrified, neurotic mess. Her mother-in-law says she'll take Jack from Kate if she doesn't clean up her act. Then Kate meets Jago, a visiting professor who specializes in statistical analysis. Jago makes her feel alive for the first time in years, and more importantly, he sets about helping her overcome her fears--but are they really unfounded? Soon, she and everyone around her will discover the fateful answer. Millar spins an infectious, engrossing and inventive story, but once she brings a new man into the picture, the storyline starts tilting toward the ridiculous. Suggesting that a woman as fearful and tenuous as Kate would dive wholeheartedly into opportunities to commit crimes and be willingly victimized will stretch the credulity of most readers. A promising premise disintegrates into a rather unbelievable story about halfway through the book.

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Starred review from June 1, 2013
Kate Parker's extraordinarily bad luckboth parents killed in a freak traffic accident on her wedding day, her husband murdered at home five years laterhas left her wary about everything and overprotective of her 10-year-old son, Jack. Even her concerns about such warning flags as recent burglaries and a creepy neighbor's behavior are considered just skittish Kate's overreactions, especially by her in-laws, who threaten to raise Jack themselves. Kate's sole and virtually obsessional solace lies in finding statistics showing the probability of danger in everyday life. So she's instantly attracted to the book Beat the Odds and Change Your Life, left casually in a juice bar, and to its author, Jago Martin, an Edinburgh professor guest-lecturing at Oxford, who offers to help Kate deal with her anxiety. The risky activities Jago proposes actually make Kate feel alive againthe unlikely result of a pathological plan fueled by revenge. Fans of Millar's accomplished debut, The Playdate (2012), won't be surprised to find that things are not always what they seem here and that paranoia may indeed be just increased awareness. As Millar makes truth elusive and builds suspense, she is establishing herself in the top tier of writers of psychological thrillers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)