Man in the Woods

What would you do if you had committed a terrible act, but no one knew, and you probably could get away with it without ever having to tell anyone? Many if not most of us would say that we couldn't live with ourselves, and that the guilt would eat away at us. But what if the terrible act you did was originally prompted by a valid reason, and your motives began as good ones? That complicates things a bit, doesn't it? This is the quandary in which character Paul Phillips finds himself in Scott Spencer's book, Man in the Woods. Paul has an encounter in the woods that haunts him from that day forward. He suffers a double burden with his secret: the fear of discovery and the equally disturbing fear of getting away with his crime. Spencer draws us into Paul's quiet life with his lover Kate and her nine-year-old daughter Ruby in what sounds like a lovely home in upstate New York. We like Paul. He seems to be a kind, thoughtful guy. This makes his struggle all the more tragic. Life is messy indeed. (This is the August book club selection for the Morning Book Club. We'll be discussing it on Friday, August 26, at 9 am. Come and join us!)