The Good Samaritan

Author: John Marrs
Genre: Psychological Thriller
399 pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, 2018

Synopsis
She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

My review
The Good Samaritan by John Marrs is a dark and intense psychological thriller. This was my first time reading a book by Marrs, and after seeing the description, I knew it would be a gripping experience. I wasn’t wrong—it was definitely intense, disturbingly dark, and hard to put down.

I usually don’t have to put much thought into rating a novel. As someone who reads a lot of psychological thrillers and crime fiction, it’s typically easy to gauge where the story and writing stand on my scale. However, this one required a bit more consideration, and I ultimately ended up somewhere in the middle.

The Good Samaritan was certainly a diabolical read—I knew just a few pages in that it was going to be dark and twisted. Marrs crafted a story filled with twists and an incredibly disturbed, evil protagonist. While the premise was promising, the story started off slow, and it wasn’t until I was nearly halfway through that it began to feel like a thriller. I also found myself having to suspend disbelief a few too many times, as the characters’ actions were often frustrating and implausible. I can appreciate creative license in a story, but this one stretched believability too far, making it difficult to connect with any of the characters, and their consistently poor decisions left little to like about them.

Overall, The Good Samaritan was engaging, with a few twists that kept the story interesting. However, it falls into the category of being too far-fetched with characters that are too unlikable, making it difficult to rate it higher than average.

My recommendation: consider skipping this one.