The Good Samaritan Paperback – 12 April 2018

My second read of John Marrs and my second 5 star review. There’s something about his writing and storytelling that I just love, even though this is a completely different subject matter than the first one I read - The One.Laura works for a volunteer suicide help line called End Of The Line. They take calls from people who are depressed, troubled and a lot of the time suicidal. Laura is not your average Good Samaritan though. She will listen and she will empathize with you completely and offer you her sympathetic ear, but if Laura thinks you are the right candidate she will encourage you to go through with your suicidal thoughts. She will help you plan it. She will advise you how to do it. She will convince you it is your only solution and she is there to help you end your suffering. The only thing she wants is a call from you when you do it so she can hear your last breath.Approaching 40 and in a troubled marriage with 3 children Laura had a troubled childhood and upbringing and apparent serious ill health recently. She wants to help people end their suffering and leave this world. She is the ultimate chameleon. A big fundraiser for End Of The Line and a soothing and helpful voice to a lot despite talking plenty of people into taking their own life. But now someone is on to her. Someone has discovered who she is and they want revenge. Laura though is one resilient woman and will not be threatened lightly and will do anything and everything to protect herself and her secrets. She is determined to get her family back together at any cost and continue with her work.Well wow, what a read. Totally exilerating. Laura our central character is absolutely bonkers. I mean over the top bonkers but you just love spending time with her as large parts of the book are spent in her narrative. She just becomes more and more creepy as the book goes on.The story is fantastic. A quite unnerving subject matter it is brilliantly told as it unfolds into a game of cat and mouse and the absolutely mental world of Laura is slowly revealed. The tension throughout is really palpable and there are so many chapters where you really don’t know where the story will go, plenty of surprises.I loved my first read by John Marrs - The One and I love this one just as much, despite being a completely different book. I just love this authors writing style and storytelling. Even the little things like the title chapters in this pleased me. They were titled “Laura - two months after “insert name here” death”. A simple but very effective way of easily displaying the passing of time without the usual adding of dates, which I always find a little confusing and have to check back in a book to see how much time has passed. The chapter title in one little sentence perfectly places me in an instant in the right time frame without me even having to think about it.I could go on and on about what I love about this book but would probably get into spoiler territory so I will just say that I would highly recommend this to any fan of thrillers or indeed just good storytelling. It’s a riveting read from the first page and in Laura, we genuinely have one of the most creepy, unhinged and bonkers central characters that I can ever remember reading.

I'm in two minds about this book to be honest. It was a horrible book to read, and by horrible I mean creepy and nasty and the characters were so distasteful that I actually felt uncomfortable during the majority of my reading experience. Despite that, it was still cruising for a whopping five shiny stars, that is until towards the end when, for me, it degenerated a wee bit, and lost a star as it stopped skirting along the line and did cross over into the realm of the incredible as it became, to me, a bit of a farce. There was just too much at the end escalation-wise and that just lost me a little bit. The absolute ending, when it came, resurrected it however and managed to save it for me.Wife and mother of two, Laura fills her time volunteering at End of the Line, a suicide helpline. Their ethos is not as you'd expect. Instead of trying to talk people out of whatever they are planning, they respect the choices they want and just try and make whatever they decide to do a little easier. But Laura has an ulterior motive in return for her time. Every time she answers the phone, she is hoping for the one individual who is determined to end it all. Even if they don't quite know it yet. all she needs is a sign, an inkling, and then she helps them in her own special way.The first part of the book sets the scene for Laura. We hear of her past escapades, her family life and a small amount of personal background. We see how she interacts with her co-workers and are privy to some of her secrets. We also learn about people she has helped in the past and how she is delighted when she answers the phone to a new client.Then we hear from Ryan, he has a very different story to tell. But I can't say much about that here. Suffice to say, he is a very wounded character and his part is all about trying to make sense of something he has very little understanding of.Ryan and Laura's stories then start to merge and more of the other characters get dragged into the mire and the rest of the book is what happens when their worlds collide, culminating in what to me was a very interesting but, on reflection, satisfying ending.Without trying to give anything away, there was a lot of repetition in this book. Scenes played out twice from the POV of different characters with only a small amount of difference. Personally, I am really not a fan of this way of storytelling even when, like in this book, it is done well. I find myself scanning rather than reading and have to concentrate too hard to rein myself in which doesn't make for a good all round experience for me. I understand why this had to happen in this book, given the nature of the characters and the plot but, it's just not my favourite thing and it did irk me a tad. Not enough to mark the book down, I've already said why I did that.One of the things I really love in a good nasty, dark psychological thriller is credibility. To chill and scare me, it has to be realistic and, for the majority of this book, it was. But, as the two main characters started to escalate, that line was crossed for me and, instead of shivering with trepidation at what I was reading, I did start to roll my eyes as it just went a little OTT and that kind of undid all the really great work that the author had done thus far. It was also, for me, a bit unbalanced. Again, probably just my own personal preference but with books of this nature, with such horrible characters, I do like a bit of respite along the way. I don't remember getting (m)any of those lighter moments in this book. Maybe if I had, the parts I thought OTT wouldn't have stuck out so much for me.That said, the author did redeem himself at the end. I was wondering how he would manage to wrap it all up. Even before it all fell apart, I had no idea where we would eventually end up but, when we got there, I did sit back nodding and thought it was a job well done.All in all, a mostly good read which did leave me satisfied at the end but which did lose me along the way a tad.

Great book. Great story. Fascinating to read to the end. Always keep you on the page. People have very strange mind and they created the one world to suit them and no one can mess with it or you get punishment for trying to corrected. Thank you for lovely story.

Really good, fast paced thriller. Characters were brilliantly executed and the plot was great. Would only wish for a few more jaw dropping moments

Another absolutely thrilling book by John Marrs.He has fast become my favourite author.I’ve never known an author make you hate a character so much but still want to read what happens to them and what their story is.I would highly recommend any of his books.

I’m by no means a huge reader, but I read this book in just two days. I also have the audible version, which is very well narrated from what I’ve heard so far. I plan to listen to the book so I can enjoy certain moments again.Initially, the premise of the book - that a suicide hotline call handler had gone rogue and was trying to talk people into taking their own lives - seemed a little ridiculous. It took me a while to get into this book, but it builds and becomes something quite special.At the point where the book is switching between the two main character, it’s hard to not keep reading as each short chapter reaches its close.I saw some of the little plot twists coming, and some may find the ending unsatisfactory. However, the lead character is both dangerous and insane, and it’s interesting to watch on as she allows her mask to slip.Some of the plot feels a bit too coincidental and contrived, but if you glimpse over certain exaggerations, you will probably enjoy this.

Like seriously wtf did I just read?!? This book is fantastic. Descriptive. Captivating. Thrilling. Lots of twists and things you wouldn't see coming from left field. This book is very well written and 100% would reccomend for anyone to read.Sick and twisted fantastic!

WOW...another excellent read from this author! Stellar character development ensued, showing the readers the ends to which people can go to, to achieve their ultimate goals!! I find that the author in each of his novels, goes to great lengths to really shape his characters' persona. This continues to make him, an exceptional author...you get a BIG BANG (consistently) for your bucks....as the saying goes! Fabulous read...very complex and interesting cast of characters! RECOMMEND!!

it's brilliant! the characters development, mind games.I was hooked from the beginning to the end.Marrs is definitely an expert on writing sociopaths.This is better then what lies between us .loved!!!

é o segundo livro do autor que eu leio, e eu AMEI os dois, eu amo a forma como ele escreve e como tem sempre algo inesperado pra acontecer

I'm sure it's happened to everyone of us, loving a book, hating a character. I'm a character oriented reader, son most of my reviews focus mainly on that part, then again, I really don't know if I want to relive my experience with Laura and Ryan.The plot sounds simple enough, this good woman helps people find reasons, courage and means to "cross the line", the price? Their last breath, simple, huh? Not so much, that's as simple as it gets. Now one would think someone volunteering at "End of the Line" should be simpathetic enough to not try and steal life away, not Laura though, the gets her kicks out of it, and also enjoys deceiving people with her self-proclaimed picture-perfect life. Although at first I really tried to understand, and even justify her actions, everything just kept getting worse, just two words: unreliable narrator, yet somehow she manages to make absolutely Every. Single. Thing about herselfNow lets move on to Ryan, it started well, a young husband in despair and in desperate need of an explanation, fair enough, right? Here's a word for you people: obesssion, someone should have told this guy there are consecuences to trying to deal with a sociopath, I guess he'd rathher learn it the hard way.There are some other characters, whose lives Laura has nicely wrapped around her finger, namely Effie, her daughter and an important piece of this story; Tony, her husband and a great disappointment to me personally; Janine, her boss at End of the Line and one of the most manipulative and unforgivable characters in the story, and some others who, whether they want it or not, end up tangled in a situation only Laura is responible of.All in all, and although some characters have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, this book is so well written and the plot is so enthralling, at a certain time you get to the point of no return, in which you just have to know what is going to happen with all those people you somehow started to care about… and some you haven't.