Source: Review copy
Publication: 15 November 2018 from Orenda Books
PP: 318
ISBN-13: 978-1912374373
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 in today-time meet-ups. And then this dysfunctional love story turns into something altogether darker, when Seth brings Hadley home…
And someone is watching…
Dark, sexy, dangerous and wildly readable, Good Samaritans marks the scorching return of one of crime fiction’s most exceptional voices.
Oh my goodness, me! This book is clearly the work of a depraved mind, and blimey did I love it!
There’s rawness and an urgency to Will Carver’s writing that communicates forcefully all the way through. When I say raw, I don’t mean it’s badly written, because it isn’t, rather it is a beautifully written work of literary fiction. But it is so painfully close to an emotional reality that it almost hurts to read it, while at the same time not allowing you to let go for a second.
Good Samaritans is addictive, destructive, dangerous, and sexy as hell and it has a heart of real darkness.
Seth Beauman doesn’t sleep. He is an insomniac who whiles away his midnight waking hours by calling strangers from the phone book. He’s hoping that eventually he will make a connection, possibly with someone in the same situation, but he really, really, just wants someone to talk to.
Seth isn’t alone in the house, though. Upstairs, his wife Maeve is fast asleep, dreaming of who knows what.
One night he is ploughing through his calls when he gets a crossed line and ends up a crossed wire talking to Hadley Serf. Hadley is suicidal and was ringing The Samaritans helpline when she ended up speaking to Seth.
That phone call turns into more than one conversation over the following nights and soon they are confiding in each other and arranging to meet. As you might imagine, one thing leads to another and this odd pair strengthen their connection and then Seth brings Hadley home.
But someone is watching and that bodes trouble for our deeply dysfunctional duo.
Meanwhile Maeve, an inveterate TV news watcher, is engaged by the case of Detective Sergeant Pace, who is on the hunt for a murderer.Someone is killing women, bathing them in bleach, and then wrapping them in plastic before dumping them.
Then there’s Ant, who works for the Samaritans and who also ends up having a conversation with Hadley. Now the story starts to take all sorts of twisty steps, though it’s so blissfully easy to follow, you never get confused.
Brilliantly constructed, innovative and seriously deranged,this book is the very definition of noir and so, if you haven’t realised this already, is not for those of a weak disposition. With graphic sex and violence that makes perfect contextual sense, Good Samaritans nevertheless manages to be both thrilling and entertaining.
Verdict: Dark, delicious, unmissable
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About Will Carver
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series (Arrow). He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age 11, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s,Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, while working on his next thriller. He lives in Reading with his two children.
Follow Will Carver on Twitter @Will_Carver
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