Meet Laura. She’s the one with the soothing voice on the phone, the one who brings the baked goods to work, a tidy lady who minds the rules. Laura’s rules, that is. You’ve never met anyone like Laura. That’s fortunate, because you don’t want to get on her bad side. It’s not just bad, it’s terrifying.

Laura works at End of the Line, a place that people call when they need help. She is there to listen to them when they reach out in distress, not to make judgments and not to counsel. End of the Line exists to provide distraught souls with someone to talk to at a time when they feel completely alone. That’s where Laura comes in. And she loves her job. Partly because she’s very good at it. Except Laura’s goals don’t match End of the Line’s goals. She not only has her own rules, she has her own goals, like filtering the callers for “candidates,” desperate people she can help in her own special way. And her special way involves clearing a path for them to pass on from this world. Really, they will be better off, and hearing them take their last breath --- well, that’s an experience Laura craves. Over and over again. End of the Line gives her a wonderful pool of lost souls to fish from.

"THE GOOD SAMARITAN is so well crafted as a thriller that it will give you goosebumps. Laura is such a creepy character that she may turn up in your nightmares."

Laura has learned a lot during her time at the call center. She can explain, for instance, exactly how to tie a noose in order not to botch a hanging. She has researched precisely the best place to jump to ensure one’s death. She knows the most effective manner to drown in a tub or to slice one’s wrists. Laura is a true expert in suicide, an expert who has helped several men and women make the right decision --- well, the right decision by her reckoning.

One of those women Laura “helped” was Ryan’s wife. Ryan thought he and Charlotte had a happy marriage. The day she died, Ryan had come home with a huge surprise for her. He was excited because he knew it would send her over the moon with delight. Only, Charlotte didn’t come home. Instead, she killed herself. Determined to understand why, Ryan discovers clues that lead him to End of the Line and, ultimately, Laura. It was bound to happen one day that Laura would be found out. And now, with dawning horror, Ryan realizes what the woman has been up to. It’s almost unbelievable, but after weeks of testing his theory, he confirms his suspicions and sets out to lay a trap. Someone has to stop Laura. She’s been killing the most vulnerable among us. It cannot be allowed to continue. But stopping Laura is not as easy as it might seem.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN is so well crafted as a thriller that it will give you goosebumps. Laura is such a creepy character that she may turn up in your nightmares. At first, she comes across as innocuous, a wife and mother who has been through a rough patch and is now trying to get things back on track. But Laura is, at best, a sociopath. She’s someone --- like all sociopaths --- who can charm her way into people’s hearts. Outwardly pretty normal, she carries on a life that, to all appearances, looks ordinary. But whatever goes on inside Laura’s head is far from normal or ordinary. She has convinced herself of a history that may be at least partially a fabrication. Her mind makes its own memories. Reality for Laura is whatever suits her at the time.

Do not try to thwart her, because Laura has a way of getting what she wants. Be very wary of this woman, as she can be deadly. What a kaleidoscope of twists!