GOOD PEOPLE
Marcus Sakey
Dutton
Thriller
ISBN: 9780525950844
Sometimes it is the simple plot that grabs you the most effectively. I love complex ideas in novels, ones that present challenging twists and turns that keep you thinking and keeping track of the who, what, when and where. It’s difficult, however, to beat a simple, direct idea that is so sharply focused with laser intensity that it burns itself into your brain so deeply that you can’t get it out of your head. That is what one encounters with Marcus Sakey’s new book.
GOOD PEOPLE has a simple enough premise. Four bad guys --- Jack, Bobby, Marshall and Will --- are involved in a robbery that quickly goes bad. Bobby winds up dead, and Will cuts out on his partners with the money. Will subsequently overdoses on drugs and dies in his rented duplex. His landlords, Tom and Anna Reed, find his lifeless body and discover the money. They keep it. And all hell breaks loose.
Let’s start with Tom and Anna. You know them. You may even be them. They are overextended, up to their eyeballs in debt and barely hanging on, and undergoing extensive fertility treatments that have failed four times and make sex an obligation rather than a recreation. Sakey nails them so well, so painfully, that you almost feel like an intruder in their lives. When they find the money --- and the method by which this occurs is worth the price of admission all by itself --- it’s like manna from heaven.
And the way the Reeds convince themselves that no one will ever know is note for note pitch-perfect. They report Will’s death to the police but don’t let on about the money, following the old theory that telling just enough of the truth will keep them safe. They pay off their debts, try another baby-making round, and still have plenty of benjamins left over.
There is only one problem. Someone does know about the money. Jack and Marshall are still out there, and both of them --- especially Jack --- are seething over what was done. They are looking for Will, turning over every rock they can to find him. And when Tom and Anna get a bit of unwelcome publicity about the gruesome discovery of the dead body on their property, Jack quickly figures out that while Will may be gone, the money isn’t and that, in all probability, Tom and Anna have it. Jack wants the cash but is also looking to vent all of this serious anger he has over what happened. Tom and Anna are as good a target as any.
All of this would be more than enough to land GOOD PEOPLE on the top of your “must read” pile. But what is really striking is the manner in which Sakey documents step by step the Reeds’ slow slide into disaster. One minute they’re like Uncle Scrooge, rolling around in their money yelling “Wheee!” The next minute, not so much. By the time they realize that maybe they should get straight with the police (or with Jack, or with somebody) and turn the money in, it’s way too late. And it doesn’t take too long to get to “way too late.” But even more than this, the book raises some subtle questions about greed and, more importantly, appreciating those blessings that one has --- and how easy it is to lose it all.
GOOD PEOPLE is a great story, well told on its own terms, but it is also beneath its surface a brilliant cautionary tale that will quietly resonate with you for some time after you finish reading. It is simply not to be missed.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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