Good Samaritans

By Will Carver

Published by Orenda Books https://orendabooks.co.uk/

Published on 15 September 2018

318 pages ISBN 9781912374373

I bought my Kindle copy from Amazon.

From the blurb

One crossed wire, three dead bodies and six bottles of bleach…

Seth Beauman can’t sleep. He stays up late, calling strangers from his phonebook, hoping to make a connection, while his wife, Maeve, sleeps upstairs. A crossed wire finds a suicidal Hadley Serf on the phone to Seth, thinking she is talking to the Samaritans.

But a seemingly harmless, late-night hobby turns into something more for Seth and for Hadley, and soon their late-night talks are turning into daytime meet-ups. And then this dysfunctional love story turns into something altogether darker, when Seth brings Hadley home…

And someone is watching…

Synopsis

Seth is a very troubled man.  He’s not particularly keen on his job or the people he works with and despises his younger boss who he would love to punch (or worse).  His big problem though is insomnia which rules his life.  When his wife is asleep, he gets out his home-made phone book and starts calling people to try and find someone, anyone, to talk to.  Occasionally, amongst the fuck off or weirdo responses he finds someone who is willing to indulge him; one night he speaks to Hadley and a real connection is made.

Hadley herself is also very troubled, feeling suicidal and believes she is speaking to a branch of the Samaritans when fate and crossed phone lines have linked her to Seth.  Speaking to Seth calms her down and she stops thinking of ending it all.  The next evening, she calls the Samaritans and asks to speak to Seth but instead speaks to Ant, at with she is unhappy and rings off.  This worries Ant, who still feels that he let down his best friend.  He crosses the line professionally and uses the details from her call to the Samaritans to trace her and then he starts to watch her, to ultimately stalk her.  He sees her get picked up at a night club for casual sex, follows them to her place and when the man leaves after ‘hit and run’ sex in her hallway he attacks him.

Seth and Hadley meet up and a relationship of sorts begins to develop, with Ant watching from a distance.  Maeve, Seth’s wife, realises that he is ‘up to his tricks’ again but will she stand by him?

All the time Maeve is becoming obsessed with the dark brooding DS Pace who is investigating a series of linked murders but making little progress.  Will she ever meet him in real life and how will he compare to Seth?

Another killing takes place and all the main characters are in some way embroiled in what follows. A trap is set but will the killer be caught?

My thoughts

Bloody hell.  What have I just read?

Where do I begin?  No this isn’t Love Story, far from it, though there is some love in a dysfunctional marriage, quite a lot of intimacy and some detailed descriptions of sexual activity.  So far so good.

The style is innovative in that it is told partly in first person and then halfway through the narrative switches to another first-person viewpoint.  The book is split into days and then the story is told in short sub chapters centring on one of the main characters in turn.  This may sound a little fiddly, but it works rather well and keeps up the unrelenting intensity for the reader.

Its dark, very dark and portrays the life and activity of a serial killer very matter-of-factly.  The violence is short and brutal without being too graphic; the lack of respect for the victim’s remains as they have indignities inflicted on them as forensic evidence is removed is chilling though.  There’s bleach, lots of it, I guess from now on I’ll take note of other people’s trollies during the weekly shop.

To pinch the old footballing cliché this was certainly a book of two halves. 

The first half trots along and we find out about the main characters of the story.  There’s Seth the computer hardware salesman who suffers from chronic insomnia and has the dubious hobby of phoning random strangers at night just for someone to talk to.  Maeve his long-suffering wife spends her evenings sprawled out in front of the telly consuming copious amounts of wine until drunken oblivion is achieved.  Then there’s fragile Hadley whose self-esteem and self-respect are rock bottom, so she resorts to self-harming and thoughts of suicide.  There’s also Ant who volunteers evenings at the Samaritans and harbours thoughts of guilt after his friend kills himself by hanging from a door during a sex act. 

Seth wants to be with Hadley; Ant wants to save her from herself.  Maeve longs for the troubled DS Pace, who is floundering with his serial killer, who she sees every night on her television and Pace just wants to get his man.

Then halfway through like a switch has been flicked the plot goes berserk and slips into overdrive. The identity of the serial killer is revealed to the reader after hints and red herrings earlier.  A main character is murdered, and the reaction of the others is somewhat surprising as actions escalate from there.  Each new plot twist will make you think WTF as it turns in another unsuspecting direction.

Another unusual aspect is that the policeman DS Pace’s role is somewhat a bit part.  This is no police procedural with forms filled and protocols followed.

Then as we come to the denouement there’s one final slap across the chops for the reader.

Stunning stuff in more ways than one, but I couldn’t read 3 or 4 like this consecutively I’m too delicate!  I have the next novel ready to read but I think I’ll leave it for while for now, but I’ll definitely be back.