As a huge Dan Simmons fan I wanted to love this book as much as his other works. HOWEVER...This book was released right between The Crook Factory and The Abominable. Both of those books are Mona Lisa's in the author's list of works. How does Simmons do it? Coming off his Sci Fi binge into his historical fiction era Darwin's Blade slices right through the action and inserts itself into its own little niche. This book is fast, to the point and will give you whiplash if you are not ready for it.
I am sure I am not the only person who noticed this...Taking into account the timeline when it was written which at the time the internet was still a fledgling tool. This book is string of Darwin awards stories chained together in a pretty good action story. At that time on the internet these stories were in heavy circulation and the Darwin Awards website was one of the most heavily visited online. Literally every death in this book is on that website. Yet somehow, Simmons being the genius he is manages to take us on an edge of our seats ride. The action in this book is second to none and scathing. The research Simmons did in order to tell this story is amazing. I will say that I did not like the Character of Darwin very much. His macho over the top actionesque machismo is nearly 007ish. But the story is good, the last few pages are kind of pointless but the contrast is there. Simmons just could not resist another Darwin award without closing the story. Considering he did this and did not give more background on the motivations of the criminals left me wanting a little more. This is Dan Simmons though... He has shown his readers that he is capable of writing in any genre and doing it better than the contemporaries of said genre... he gets a pass. ( )

Very good mystery about accident investigator who knows too much. Written by SF writer in different style.

It was a pretty entertaining read. TMI on all the gun stuff that doesn't fascinate me. ( )

Some good bits, but bloated and over-written ( )

Dan Simmons has won numerous awards in several genres. This book is perhaps a bit unusual: the detective as accident investigator. Dr. Darwin Minor, Ph.D. in physics and ex- Marine sniper in Vietnam, reconstructs accidents, and it seems the Los Angeles area has been hit by numerous insurance frauds. Destitute Mexican immigrants are hired to become involved in an accident. They then receive the services of lawyers and doctors to beat the insurance companies out of millions. Darwin (Dar to his friends), who has a horror of grammatical errors and notes them constantly in conversations with others, links up with Sydney (Syd to her friends), an accident investigator, and several other law enforcement agents to bring down a humongous conspiracy to defraud insurance agents. It all gets a bit over the top by the end with Russian snipers attacking Dar' cabin, but of course, the good guys win with that last incredible shot. What saved the book for me were the often humorous, strange and often grotesque descriptions of accidents. Simmons notes in his acknowledgments that all of the accidents detailed in the book really happened or were compilations of accidents, and the book is peppered with seemingly bizarre events that purportedly really happened. I particularly enjoyed some quotes from accident files. " had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident." Or " guy was all over the road. I had to swerve several times before I hit him." Or, " invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished." Another favorite was the Saturn ad that was being filmed. The dealer wanted to show the incredible strength of the Saturn windshield, which was intended to withstand much more substantial impacts than regular safety glass. To impress the audience, the dealer had borrowed an FAA device called a chicken cannon. This device was used to fire chickens into airplane engines -- a dead chicken representing a large to midsize bird in flight -- to test the effect on the engine; presumably, the effect on the chicken, already dead, would be slight. Anyway, the engineers had assured the dealer that the Saturn windshield could easily withstand the impact of the dead chicken fired from the cannon at two hundred miles per hour. When Darwin arrives on the scene, everyone is in a panic — the actress dressed as a nun who was to sit in the driver' seat, in a dead faint — because the chicken had gone right through the windshield, through the driver' seat and out the back of the car. " Saturn lied to us," the dealer asks Darwin. Darwin explains that no, the windshield could easily have withstood a chicken at two hundred miles per hour. " what . . . how did we. . . why. . .how in God' name. . ." said the dealer. Dar decided to be succinct. " time," he said, " the chicken." ( )