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The Accidental Existentialist
THE ACCIDENTAL EXISTENTIALIST
( A short novella)
Chris Connor stages his death in order to go dark and take on the head of an International Russian Crime Syndicate, perpetrators of illegal arms dealing, human trafficking and the death of his first born son. Tense, action-packed and filled with more twists than the Coney Island Cyclone, THE ACCIDENTAL EXISTENTIALIST poses the question: How far would one man go to rid the world of evil, and avenge his son?
( A short novella)
Chris Connor stages his death in order to go dark and take on the head of an International Russian Crime Syndicate, perpetrators of illegal arms dealing, human trafficking and the death of his first born son. Tense, action-packed and filled with more twists than the Coney Island Cyclone, THE ACCIDENTAL EXISTENTIALIST poses the question: How far would one man go to rid the world of evil, and avenge his son?
ebook
First published August 16, 2010
718 people are currently reading
238 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Graham
55 books211 followersJOSHUA GRAHAM is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Beyond Justice, Terminus, and Darkroom, the winner of the International Book Award, Forward National Literature Award, USA Book News Best Books Award, and host of Thriller Radio. His award-winning novel DARKROOM hit 3 bestseller lists on Amazon the night of its release.
CBS NEWS described DARKROOM as a book with "action, political intrigue and well-rounded characters...a novel that thriller fans will devour."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY described BEYOND JUSTICE as: "A riveting legal thriller...breaking new ground with a vengeance...demonically entertaining and surprisingly inspiring."
Suspense Magazine listed BEYOND JUSTICE in its BEST OF 2010, alongside titles by Scott Turrow, Ted Dekker, Steven James and Brad Thor.
Many of Graham's readers blame him for sleepless nights, arriving to work late, neglected dishes and family members, and not allowing them to put the book down.
Josh grew up in Brooklyn, NY where he lived for the better part of 30 years. He holds a Bachelor and Master's Degree and went on to earn his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. During his time in Maryland, he taught as a professor at Shepherd College (WV), Western Maryland College, and Columbia Union College (MD).
Today he lives with his beautiful wife and children in Southern California.
For Film Rights Josh is represented by UNITED TALENT AGENCY. Please use the CONTACT button on his website www.joshua-graham.com/contact for all inquiries.
Connect with Josh on:
Facebook: http://joshua-graham.com/fb
Twitter: @J0shuaGraham
www.joshua-graham.com
Sign up for exclusive updates, interviews, and to be entered for giveaways by subscribing to Josh's newsletter: www.joshua-graham.com/GIA
CBS NEWS described DARKROOM as a book with "action, political intrigue and well-rounded characters...a novel that thriller fans will devour."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY described BEYOND JUSTICE as: "A riveting legal thriller...breaking new ground with a vengeance...demonically entertaining and surprisingly inspiring."
Suspense Magazine listed BEYOND JUSTICE in its BEST OF 2010, alongside titles by Scott Turrow, Ted Dekker, Steven James and Brad Thor.
Many of Graham's readers blame him for sleepless nights, arriving to work late, neglected dishes and family members, and not allowing them to put the book down.
Josh grew up in Brooklyn, NY where he lived for the better part of 30 years. He holds a Bachelor and Master's Degree and went on to earn his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. During his time in Maryland, he taught as a professor at Shepherd College (WV), Western Maryland College, and Columbia Union College (MD).
Today he lives with his beautiful wife and children in Southern California.
For Film Rights Josh is represented by UNITED TALENT AGENCY. Please use the CONTACT button on his website www.joshua-graham.com/contact for all inquiries.
Connect with Josh on:
Facebook: http://joshua-graham.com/fb
Twitter: @J0shuaGraham
www.joshua-graham.com
Sign up for exclusive updates, interviews, and to be entered for giveaways by subscribing to Josh's newsletter: www.joshua-graham.com/GIA
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 7, 2016
-Existencialismo que no existe.-
Género. Novela corta.
Lo que nos cuenta. Chris Connor es testigo de su propio funeral desde una limusina, un truco realizado con la intención de proteger a sus seres queridos del mafioso ruso Khrenikov, involucrado en drogas, armas y tráfico de seres humanos entre otros delitos. Las investigaciones de Chris para la División de Investigación Criminal del Cuerpo de Marines de Estados Unidos contra Khrenikov ya le han costado a su primogénito, y Chris quiere venganza. Bajo la identidad de O´Reilly se infiltra en la red criminal de Khrenikov.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Novela corta.
Lo que nos cuenta. Chris Connor es testigo de su propio funeral desde una limusina, un truco realizado con la intención de proteger a sus seres queridos del mafioso ruso Khrenikov, involucrado en drogas, armas y tráfico de seres humanos entre otros delitos. Las investigaciones de Chris para la División de Investigación Criminal del Cuerpo de Marines de Estados Unidos contra Khrenikov ya le han costado a su primogénito, y Chris quiere venganza. Bajo la identidad de O´Reilly se infiltra en la red criminal de Khrenikov.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
September 16, 2021
Awesome
Looks like I have a new favorite author to keep me up late at night reading when I should be sleeping.
Looks like I have a new favorite author to keep me up late at night reading when I should be sleeping.
February 9, 2022
Too short!
I've been following Joshua for a while. This story reads more like the final chapter of a much longer story! Joshua, you need to write this!
I've been following Joshua for a while. This story reads more like the final chapter of a much longer story! Joshua, you need to write this!
Read
September 3, 2011Short story.
Chris Connor, a lieutenant in the CID, fakes his own death. It is the only way he can protect his wife and son. His older son had been kidnapped and killed by the Russian mafia.
Chris, using another identity, then tries to kill the leader. He gets a surprise when he learns the identity of the leak in his organization.
(Although the leak coming from this person was only to be expected. He's the only other person mentioned besides the Russians.)
-------------------------------
I reviewed this yesterday and gave it 2 stars. Then I shut down my computer for the night.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I decided that it was just too full of logic errors that it didn't deserve any stars.
I usually don't tell the final denouement of anything I review but the rest of this will be spoilers. Fair warning.
I already mentioned about the leak being the only person other than the bad guy Russians mentioned in the story. Well, that's not the only problem
Chris passes himself off as an arms dealer. It's never made clear if he's assuming the identity of someone who is an arms dealer or if this is his persona. Nevertheless, he's immediately taken into the Russian sphere. Now, this may be due to the leak who has been in cahoots with the Russians all along. I don't know.
Immediately after meeting a Russian enforcer who's to take him to the big boss Chris has the enforcer writhing on the ground from a blow to...you know where. He disarms the Russian taking his gun and a box cutter. The box cutter gets tucked into Chris's sock.
So the Russian takes him to meet the boss. When Chris gets on the boat (and the Russian enforcer now has back-up) Chris is NEVER SEARCHED. He voluntarily hands over his own gun and the confiscated gun from the enforcer. Does the Russian say to his cohort, "Wait, he's got my box cutter, too?" Hell, no, that would make too much sense.
Remember, Chris is there to blow up the boat and kill the boss. He is able to retain in his jacket pockets both the explosive and the detonator. Surprise, the leak is there on the boat. He's Chris's colonel in the CID. HE KNOWS Chris is there to avenge his dead son.
So he tries to get Chris to come over to his side. UTTERLY STUPID. Does he take the explosives away from Chris? NO.
Eventually, Chris's hands are zip-tied behind his back and he is thrown overboard. DOES SOMEONE SHOOT OR STAB HIM, too? Of course not.
Underwater, he's able to get his hands in front of his body and whip out the aforementioned box cutter. He swims to the underside of the yacht and attaches the explosive.
As the yacht sails away he pulls the detonator from another pocket. It's REALLY protected from the water IN A BAGGIE. Press, press, press and nothing happens. Has water damaged the detonator or has the yacht just gotten too far away?
I'd have to get this out of my Kindle archives to check the exact way he did it but Chris got the yacht to turn back towards him and BOOM the detonator works.
He's then picked up out of the water by a helicopter.
Chris Connor, a lieutenant in the CID, fakes his own death. It is the only way he can protect his wife and son. His older son had been kidnapped and killed by the Russian mafia.
Chris, using another identity, then tries to kill the leader. He gets a surprise when he learns the identity of the leak in his organization.
(Although the leak coming from this person was only to be expected. He's the only other person mentioned besides the Russians.)
-------------------------------
I reviewed this yesterday and gave it 2 stars. Then I shut down my computer for the night.
The more I thought about it, though, the more I decided that it was just too full of logic errors that it didn't deserve any stars.
I usually don't tell the final denouement of anything I review but the rest of this will be spoilers. Fair warning.
I already mentioned about the leak being the only person other than the bad guy Russians mentioned in the story. Well, that's not the only problem
Chris passes himself off as an arms dealer. It's never made clear if he's assuming the identity of someone who is an arms dealer or if this is his persona. Nevertheless, he's immediately taken into the Russian sphere. Now, this may be due to the leak who has been in cahoots with the Russians all along. I don't know.
Immediately after meeting a Russian enforcer who's to take him to the big boss Chris has the enforcer writhing on the ground from a blow to...you know where. He disarms the Russian taking his gun and a box cutter. The box cutter gets tucked into Chris's sock.
So the Russian takes him to meet the boss. When Chris gets on the boat (and the Russian enforcer now has back-up) Chris is NEVER SEARCHED. He voluntarily hands over his own gun and the confiscated gun from the enforcer. Does the Russian say to his cohort, "Wait, he's got my box cutter, too?" Hell, no, that would make too much sense.
Remember, Chris is there to blow up the boat and kill the boss. He is able to retain in his jacket pockets both the explosive and the detonator. Surprise, the leak is there on the boat. He's Chris's colonel in the CID. HE KNOWS Chris is there to avenge his dead son.
So he tries to get Chris to come over to his side. UTTERLY STUPID. Does he take the explosives away from Chris? NO.
Eventually, Chris's hands are zip-tied behind his back and he is thrown overboard. DOES SOMEONE SHOOT OR STAB HIM, too? Of course not.
Underwater, he's able to get his hands in front of his body and whip out the aforementioned box cutter. He swims to the underside of the yacht and attaches the explosive.
As the yacht sails away he pulls the detonator from another pocket. It's REALLY protected from the water IN A BAGGIE. Press, press, press and nothing happens. Has water damaged the detonator or has the yacht just gotten too far away?
I'd have to get this out of my Kindle archives to check the exact way he did it but Chris got the yacht to turn back towards him and BOOM the detonator works.
He's then picked up out of the water by a helicopter.
March 7, 2012
The Accidental Existentialist is a fast paced story that really sucks you in quickly, sets the stage, gives you just enough to get you an idea of what's going on - allowing your imagination to fill in the blanks - and then delivers what is the climax to what could have easily been fleshed out into a 400 pages thriller in the same vein as some of Ted Dekker's best books. Joshua really has a knack for telling a gripping tale without much fluff, but not so terse that you feel like you're getting a cliff notes version of a book. He even manages to pack in a few surprises in this mini-thriller that were pretty enjoyable and the action was pretty much non-stop starting at about page 3.
Definitely recommended anytime you've got ~30 minutes to sit down with a book and you're looking for a little action/thriller type novel.
Definitely recommended anytime you've got ~30 minutes to sit down with a book and you're looking for a little action/thriller type novel.
October 19, 2011
Thank heavens this was an Amazon freebie when I got it. The story started out as a solid three star novella, but quickly moved to two stars and just not my cuppa review file. Then the final twist happened and it all fell apart.
Maybe it's just because I don't share the author's inner ideals - mine lie on the other side of the globe - but I didn't have real reason to cheer for Chris Conner at any point. Graham completely failed to sell me Conner's motivations. His kid died, tough, but Conner's contempt - not rage, mind you - towards the big bad didn't come from losing his son, it came from wounded work ego and patriotism.
I think I'll leave it at that and just say I didn't like it. Doesn't mean you'll have to agree with me though.
Maybe it's just because I don't share the author's inner ideals - mine lie on the other side of the globe - but I didn't have real reason to cheer for Chris Conner at any point. Graham completely failed to sell me Conner's motivations. His kid died, tough, but Conner's contempt - not rage, mind you - towards the big bad didn't come from losing his son, it came from wounded work ego and patriotism.
I think I'll leave it at that and just say I didn't like it. Doesn't mean you'll have to agree with me though.
September 9, 2013
Decent short story, but a tad predictable and I never connected psychologically with the main character.
[SPOILER ALERT] Logically it holds together (the Russian middleman is out to see his mobster boss killed, so he had no reason to mention that the main character was coming aboard the yacht with his knife, and the turncoat didn't expect the MC to learn that the Russian mobster wasn't the one who killed his son, so of course he thought the MC could be persuaded to his perspective). And I do like the philosophical discussion at the end. But was anyone really surprised when the rescue chopper showed up? [END SPOILER]
Still, it's a good exciting story and the quality level is decent. We'll call it three stars.
[SPOILER ALERT] Logically it holds together (the Russian middleman is out to see his mobster boss killed, so he had no reason to mention that the main character was coming aboard the yacht with his knife, and the turncoat didn't expect the MC to learn that the Russian mobster wasn't the one who killed his son, so of course he thought the MC could be persuaded to his perspective). And I do like the philosophical discussion at the end. But was anyone really surprised when the rescue chopper showed up? [END SPOILER]
Still, it's a good exciting story and the quality level is decent. We'll call it three stars.
June 29, 2014
The story starts with Chris Connor watching his wife and son at a funeral at his funeral as he’s faked his own death to get to a Russian who he thinks killed his other son.
He is that determined to find out why he kidnapped and then killed his son.
The only other person who knows what is going on is Masterson.
Little does Chris know that with faking his own death and then infiltrating the Russian syndicate that something not planned for would happen.
Great story and would have made a brilliant longer book.
He is that determined to find out why he kidnapped and then killed his son.
The only other person who knows what is going on is Masterson.
Little does Chris know that with faking his own death and then infiltrating the Russian syndicate that something not planned for would happen.
Great story and would have made a brilliant longer book.
January 17, 2013
This was an exciting read, but too short. It reads like the climax chapter of a regular novel. So, the first few pages gives a crisp background to the plot, and then the balance 70% of the pages are, simply put, what could be the last couple of chapters of a regular thriller. The result is- it all ends too soon! But, to be fair, it was an exciting 30 minutes of time that I spent reading this, and to that extent, it was pure entertainment.
May 6, 2016
Too short!
I would certainly recommend this as a short story - but it certainly seemed to beg for more. It's like it just started in the middle with no beginning (although there was reference to other past things.) and needed more as a final, to add to the conclusion. What happens next, and where does he go from here, that kind of thing!
I would certainly recommend this as a short story - but it certainly seemed to beg for more. It's like it just started in the middle with no beginning (although there was reference to other past things.) and needed more as a final, to add to the conclusion. What happens next, and where does he go from here, that kind of thing!
August 29, 2011
I don't like short stories for the most part. This one is an example of why. Very very rushed to get to the end of the plot without any character development at all. I had no vested interest in anyone or anything.
March 22, 2012
I'd certainly read more by this author if it came my way.
The twist didn't really surprise me though - I was waiting for a counter-twist at the end which didn't happen. Nevertheless, it was a good, well-written story.
The twist didn't really surprise me though - I was waiting for a counter-twist at the end which didn't happen. Nevertheless, it was a good, well-written story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2012
This is a very quick read, but unfortunately not a very interesting one. There's not enough background, and the whole thing is over too fast for the reader to get invested in the story or in any of the characters. Not memorable at all.
June 30, 2012
Well paced and a quick read. I think I get where the title comes from, and if the story had been twice as long I think Graham could have developed that theme fully. As it is, it is just a good quick read. There is undeveloped potential for more. Would be good for the beach.
June 23, 2015
Fast Thriller with memorable characters
Great short story by Joshua Graham. He quickly establishes characters with great detail. He covers a lot story in a short period of time too. No time for filler here. I look forward to read more from him.
Great short story by Joshua Graham. He quickly establishes characters with great detail. He covers a lot story in a short period of time too. No time for filler here. I look forward to read more from him.
May 15, 2016
Great short story
It was sad in the beginning how the father had to witness himself being buried by his own family. Knowing that these mob guys go after people and that sometimes they might have to fake their own death they have their family safe.
It was sad in the beginning how the father had to witness himself being buried by his own family. Knowing that these mob guys go after people and that sometimes they might have to fake their own death they have their family safe.
March 2, 2011
I wish this was a novel rather than a short story as I instantly got hooked on Chris and the story!
September 10, 2011
I did enjoy reading this, but I had absolutely no idea it was a short story. This really needs to be made into a novel.
October 6, 2011
It was a very good short story. I agree with others that it should have been made into a full length novel.
April 5, 2012
Joshua Graham writes some interesting books. They are short, quick reads and are worth reading.
September 12, 2012
OK - much shorter than I expected - ended abruptly - not completely sure what I thought - liked the character development - looking forward to reading a full length novel
February 4, 2013
The ending brought my rating up from a three to a four... A story such as this is not a normal read but I enjoyed it.
April 22, 2013
Entertaining, short mystery.
December 6, 2013
"GOODREAD"
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews