Good People by Marcus Sakey

Tom and Anna just want a family. They are going in debt trying in-vitro and are about to give up. Then they find their reclusive tenant (down stairs) dead. They also find $400,000.00. That seems to be just what they need. After all who will even know, he was a hermit, no friends, no family. But soon they are about to find (the truth) about their tenet, and soon their life is in danger. And they may have made the biggest mistake of their lives.

A fast pace nail biting thriller, with plenty of suspense and edge-of-your seat moments. Tom and Anna are likable, and I can see how they get themselves in this situation. Wanting a family so bad clouds their judgement. Overall I greatly enjoyed Good People and feel those who love a great thriller will enjoy it as well. ( )

A married couple find over $300,000 in their rental unit after their renter dies unexpectedly. They decide to not tell the police about the money, thinking the renter was a recluse, but then the bad guys come looking for it. The story had lots of suspense and was mostly believable in first half. At one point the couple got more involved with the criminals, which didn’t seem believable, but then they realized they were way over their heads and changed what they were doing. Then again in the last part, it went over the top but I liked it anyway. Overall, an entertaining read. ( )

Since Marcus Sakey is a local thriller author (Chicago, IL), I decided to read Good People. Available at my public library, I was excited to listen to the audio version of this fast-paced thriller. Though my iPod mixed up some of the tracks in this book, I listened to the majority of the story in chronological order.

The premise of the book is interesting: What happens to everyday Good People when they fall into sticky situations?

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Here’s the official synopsis:

“A family, and the security to enjoy it: that’s all Tom and Anna Reed ever wanted. But years of infertility treatments, including four failed attempts at in-vitro fertilization, have left them with neither. The emotional and financial costs are straining their marriage and endangering their dreams. So when their downstairs tenant, a recluse whose promptly delivered cashier’s checks were barely keeping them afloat, dies in his sleep, the $400,000 they find stashed in his kitchen seems like fate. More than fate: a chance for everything they’ve dreamed of for so long. A fairy-tale ending.

But Tom and Anna soon realize that fairy tales never come cheap. Because their tenant wasn’t a hermit who squirreled away his pennies. He was a criminal who double-crossed some of the most dangerous men in Chicago. Men who won’t stop until they get revenge, no matter where they find it.”

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Interesting, right? What would I do if I found $400,000 in my imaginary tenant’s kitchen? Those were the thoughts constantly running through my head.
What would YOU do in that situation?

Many contemporary thrillers seem to lack depth. Not Good People. Sakey wove his theme through the narrative in a not-so-subtle manner, but it worked. After each chapter, I imagined myself as one of the characters in yet another conundrum from my bad choices. Now what would I do?

Point of view in the novel is another noticeable technique. As writers, we are cautioned against head-hopping between the characters in a given scene. Sakey knows that “rule,” but he broke it marvelously. Sometimes, I was jolted out of the story to switch perspectives from Tom to Anna. I still could follow the story.

Thrillers should have that page-turning quality to them. That’s one of the telling characteristics. Sakey delivered. I could hardly stop listening to this book long enough to catch up on my favorite pod casts. I was obsessed with the story till the last page.

Give it a read (or a listen). Let me know what you ( )

In my opinion, this is Mr. Sakey's best so far - a good villain, at least half a dozen dead bodies, good dialogue, a minimum of "azure sky" descriptions and a self-centered YUP couple in trouble. What's not to like? ( )

A good story told at a brisk pace, on a par with his first effort "the blade itself" but maybe not enough depth to the characters as I didnt feel engaged with the couple who as main characters I know I should have been rooting for and I know the ending should make you feel sorry for them in the unhappy fairytale ending kind of way but actually I didn't. (Sorry about that as Bill Hicks might say). That said I would have no hesitation in recommending Sakey to the uninitiated after reading 3 of his books this year and enjoying all of them. ( )