The One That Got Away by Simon Wood

 Zoe Sutton was on the way to her dreams.  She was working on a PhD in Environmental Science, her chosen path for doing some real good in the world.  She had a loving family, great friends and a happy life.  Zoe took a trip to Las Vegas and on the way home left her life behind in a small town she can’t remember during a night she can’t forget.                           

A year later we see Zoe, no longer a young professional working as a mall cop.  She escaped from a serial killer but is now a prisoner of PTSD and survivor guilt.  She has cut herself off from family and friends.  She struggles with sudden rages and loneliness. She seeks out situations for confrontation and self-medicates with alcohol.   All that changes when her worst nightmare is broadcast on the local news.  A woman’s body has been found mutilated by the same faceless man who scarred her. Is he here in San Francisco looking for her, the one that got away?      

When I was a college student we studied survivor guilt in my psychology classes.  Having lived a rather sheltered life I did not really understand how someone could blame themselves for the non crime of continuing to live when another dies. 

Time and experience teach lessons that cannot be learned from books.  I am older, wiser and sometimes feel the weight of blame for the small tragedies of life that I could not prevent.  ‘If only’ and ‘I regret’ the soul wails.  I may know in my mind that I have no entry on the fault side of life’s tally sheet and yet there is a black mark that is never completely removed from the  heart.  I know that my guilt is mild in comparison to those that continue breathing when chance rips out  the spirit of another in their place.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Simon Wood has done a spectacular job of portraying the guilt ridden Zoe in this book.  She is realistic in thought and deed.  The abrupt shift from fun loving girl to socially agnostic woman is both heart rending and believable.  

This book is scheduled for release on March 1, 2015.  Let’s hope for a traditional “in like a lion’ March.  Start this book when the wind rises.  It is so absorbing that you won’t even hear the roar of a hurricane outside.  Enjoy!  

--Review by Terrell Byrd, President, SJ SinC

(This review was taken from the SJ SinC newsletter.)

 

Simon Wood