By Mike Pace
ISBN: 9781608091355
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Publication Date: 12/02/2014
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars
Tom Booker is a new attorney at a powerful Washington law firm. Texting while driving across Memorial Bridge, he loses control and crashes into an oncoming minivan carrying his own daughter and three of her friends. The minivan tips up on two wheels, about to flip over into the Potomac. Time freezes, he’s alone on the bridge.
A young couple approaches and offers him a re-wind. The crash would be averted, the children saved. All he must do is kill someone every two weeks—anyone—a “soul exchange.” A moment later, Tom is back in his spinning car, but averts the deadly crash. He laughs about the hallucination, attributing it to bumping his head on the steering wheel when his car came to an abrupt stop. But his encounter wasn’t a hallucination. Two weeks later, the minivan driver is brutally murdered. Tom receives a text: one down, four to go. He has never shot—much less owned—a gun in his life, and now must turn himself into a serial killer or his daughter and her friends will die.
My Review
A special thank you to Oceanview Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Mike Pace’s ONE TO GO, is a realistic and compelling suspense of Tom Booker, a Washington attorney who finds himself in the middle of a nightmare, after texting while driving.
What starts as a stressful day in a rush to pick up his daughter for a field trip, and a hectic day as the partner at the prestigious law firm, Smith Hale, and Masterson, approaching sixty (of course, he looks ten years younger), as the best white-collar defense counsel in town.
In his Lexus GS 430, he knows Gaye will kill him as she is always frustrated with his all work attitude, and while he is on his way, his daughter was picked up by another family and as he approaches the bridge, he sends a text message. He sees Janie’s face pressed up against the van window.
Time freezes, and he is alone except for a young couple approaching. What follows next is haunting. The crash would be averted, and all safe; however, he must kill someone every two weeks (a soul exchange). How will this father become a serial killer in order to save his daughter?
Texting is front and center in today’s world of social media, and even though fiction, a thought-provoking and realistic account of what can happen in an extraordinary situation. The, what ifs? What if you got a pass; however, there would be a trade.
Reminded me a little of Will Smith’s movie Seven Pounds, at the beginning, when a successful aeronautical engineer and his girlfriend-- driving down the highway, finds himself looking at his blackberry, when a tragic accident occurs, killing six people. Unable to live with himself, he comes up with a plan to redeem himself by donating parts of his body to those in need.
Of course, ONE TO GO is totally different with twists and turns, when in an innocent second, tragedy can be devastating.
This was my first book by Pace, for a riveting and suspenseful novel, holding your breath for the text turn. Pace's experience in the Washington criminal justice system and insights, were definitely reflective throughout this chilling and twisted roller coaster ride. Finely paced plotting, descriptive, and engaging characters.
Look forward to reading DEAD LIGHT, his previous book which has received rave reviews- an author to follow.
