The Good Samaritan - John Marrs

Wow!! I'm not sure how to describe this book. 

   I once was told that if a book invoked feelings when you read it then it was a good book. If the book invoked strong feelings then it was a great book. By this criteria, The Good Samaritan is a great book. Let me start with how the story made me feel. Sympathy, anger, frustration, claustrophobic, horror, empathy, and sadness are a few of the emotions that come to mind. The one thing I dislike are open ended stories however that  is a personal preference and a writing technique that doesn't affect the story content.  This book was gripping and the ending left me with so many conflicted emotions. Most of them disturbing. And questions.What happened next?

   The story begins with a phone call. As the conversation unfolds I realized that one person is encouraging the other, a man, to do something but I don't know what. He is resolved on accomplishing what he is planning.  Then he meets a woman but the woman is having second thoughts. I still don't know what the person on the phone is determined for these two people to do.  But after the person who is "in charge" calls the woman I, realize what the task is and I am horrified. How can one person be so evil and encourage others to take their lives for their own personal gratification? The end of the prologue left me stunned.

   Laura and Ryan are the two main characters of this book. The first portion of the book is about Laura. I learn Laura volunteers at a organization called End of the Line. End of the Line is a call center for trouble people to call and talk to people who will listen and help them. Many of these people are depressed and often suicidal. Usually they are looking for someone to offer them hope. The unlucky ones find Laura. Laura believes she is "helping" when she guides callers towards taking their own lives. Laura hides who she really is very successfully and is fully aware of what she is doing. She presents herself as the maternal type. Someone who is helpful, loving and kind. Because that type of person would never be considered a threat. That type of person can get away with almost anything. 

   As the chapters go on, I find that Laura doesn't like her life. She hates the house she lives in, her marriage is in trouble and there is a mystery around one of her children. The fact that Laura's childhood was difficult comes as no surprise but the events that she suffered through causes me to have sympathy for her. How awful for a child to have to suffer through what she did. Losing her mother to illness, her father and two sisters dying and then the things she suffered while in the care of a foster parent. So although I am horrified by the way she "helps" people in a way I do understand how she can justify it to herself. Laura truly believes she is helping people but is honest enough with herself to admit that she does not do it out of selflessness, she admits that she does this because she craves the control over another person and the thrill of hearing their last breath. 

   Laura is as deceitful and manipulative to her family as she is with others. Laura  does everything she can to make others do what she wants and to make situations turn out the way she wants. She has no limits to what she will do even if it hurts her children.  I  Laura because she is manipulative and mean but at the same time I admire her because she is honest with herself about who she is. How many of us can honestly say we admit who we really are? Laura disguises her true self to others but never to herself. 

   The second part of the book is when we meet Ryan. Ryan has lost his wife. She is found dead. Ryan doesn't want to accept the fact that his wife committed suicide until all the evidence presented by the police gives him no choice. He is devastated. He loved Charlotte and the baby she was carrying and  believed they had a wonderful future together. Ryan cycles through the stages of grief but as anyone that has dealt with loosing a loved one to suicide these stages of grief are not the same as loosing a loved one through an accident or illness. There's the added component of trying to understand why our loved one felt so desperate that they saw killing themselves as the only way to end the pain. We deal with the additional guilt of questioning our actions. Did we do anything that caused them to feel that was their only option? How could we not see how sad and depressed they were? Was there anything we could have done to prevent their death?  We try to find answers to the why they did it. It was during the stage of trying to find out why that Ryan came across Laura and The End of the Line.

   Now I find out to what extent that Ryan will go in order to find answers and to confront Laura to make her confess her treachery. I learn that even the "good guy" isn't always so good. That when faced with situations that the normal mind cannot comprehend, emotions take over and the resulting actions lead to fatal and devastating consequences. 

You'll have to read the book to find out all that happens with Laura, her family and Ryan. You won't be disappointed.

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