Product Description

The spectacular Dutton debut of a thriller writer whose ecstatically acclaimed work draws comparisons to luminaries such as Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos, and Dennis Lehane

A family, and the security to enjoy it: that’s all Tom and Anna Reed ever wanted. But years of infertility treatments, including four failed attempts at in-vitro fertilization, have left them with neither. The emotional and financial costs are straining their marriage and endangering their dreams. So when their downstairs tenant—a recluse whose promptly delivered cashier’s checks were barely keeping them afloat—dies in his sleep, the $400,000 they find stashed in his kitchen seems like fate. More than fate: a chance for everything they’ve dreamed of for so long. A fairy-tale ending.

But Tom and Anna soon realize that fairy tales never come cheap. Because their tenant wasn’t a hermit who squirreled away his pennies. He was a criminal who double-crossed some of the most dangerous men in Chicago. Men who won’t stop until they get revenge, no matter where they find it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #524840 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. What would you do if, like Chicagoans Tom and Anna Reed, you stumbled on $400,000 that seemed heaven sent? After reading Sakey's masterful third crime thriller, you'd probably leave it untouched. In increasing debt from failed attempts to produce a child, Tom and Anna can't resist taking the money they discover hidden in their deceased tenant's apartment. After the initial euphoria, the Reeds find themselves dealing with a deadly drug dealer who wants something they don't have, a vengeful robber looking for the money they do have and a suspicious cop who knows they're holding out on him. Sakey, who excels at taking ordinary good people and forcing them to meet terrible challenges, ratchets up the stakes, creating ever more diabolical traps and ever more desperate escapes until the final shattering conclusion. Having topped his previous two novels (At the City's Edge and The Blade Itself), Sakey may have trouble equaling this stellar performance. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
Sakey, whose debut novel, The Blade Itself (2007), garnered a truckload of praise, returns with a chilling story that combines an ordinary couple’s desperation with a band of Chicago criminals’ unslaked thirst for revenge. It’s masterful in showing how the daily drip, drip of dreams deferred can lead people into peril. Sakey’s opening chapters juxtapose an unbearably tense murder-and-betrayal scene in a club against a domestic drama centered on a couple’s inability to conceive a child. Readers may feel a bit of whiplash with the contrast, but Sakey’s portrayal of the couple’s despair (to the tune of $15,000 per failed in vitro treatment) is essential to understanding their plight in the rest of the novel. The plot hinges, however, on one very creaky, contrived element. The couple owns a two-flat and rents the bottom unit to a taciturn, somewhat creepy tenant. The deus ex machina element comes in when the husband smells smoke, the couple investigates downstairs, and finds that where there’s smoke—there’s a pile of money just lying on the floor with the tenant conveniently dead. The couple is now $400,000 to the good, and the Chicago Police no wiser, but, of course, their troubles are just beginning. The dead tenant betrayed some very bad, well-connected criminals, who will stop at nothing to retrieve their money and exact revenge. Excellent chase and psychological drama, after the initial plot bump. --Connie Fletcher

Review
“Neither a simple nor a stereotypical thriller...The action is frenetic, the suspense high, and the results shocking. Highly recommended.”
— library journal

“[a] teri fic read ... Sakey ’s best book yet.”
—Chicago Tribune

“CRIME DRAMA FOR THE 21st CENTURY.”
—NPR

“MASTERFUL.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Customer Reviews

Good People=Good Book!
The basic premise of Good People centers on the question 'How far would you go to keep hidden the fact that you found $370,000?' When Tom and Anna Reed find $370,000 they develop a simple plan regarding their find. Their plan is to keep the money hidden and wait to see if anyone comes to claim it. If not, they plan to keep the money and use it in ways that will change their lives. What the Reeds don't realize is that their simple plan has led them to cross some very dangerous men who won't stop until they get revenge no matter where they find it. Let me be very clear about the fact that Sakey's third book, Good People, is a very fast-paced, exciting, entertaining read. What the premise of the book is not, however, is original. That is, it is very similar to the book written several years ago by Scott Smith called A Simple Plan. As I said, Good People is a book that is suspenseful and worth reading, especially by those who have never read (or seen the movie) A Simple Plan. In comparison, however, I think readers (and/or viewers) of A Simple Plan will find, as I did, that Good People pales somewhat in comparison.

exciting thriller

Struggling middle class Tom and Anna Reed are good solid citizens who love one another. Their dream is to have a child, but infertility makes it impossible without expensive help. They do not have the money for some of the alternatives and those they have tried like in-vitro have proven futile.

Helping them survive financially as they pinch pennies for their next fertility try is a reclusive tenant who pays monthly rent to them. When their hermit dies, the Reeds worry about how they will survive without his income coming in monthly. They enter their late lodger's room to clean it out only to find four-hundred thousand dollars. Unable to resist what both feel is an easy windfall that no one will know about except themselves, this will allow them to attempt again to fulfill their dream of a child. However, neither understands that their deceased boarder left behind some irate Windy City associates who believe the ill-gotten loot belongs to them; these dangerous thugs do not mind the use of force including breaking limbs or even murder and their sights are set on the Reeds.

This exciting thriller uses a typical American suburban family trying to fulfill their dream that places them in extreme danger from deadly mobsters who believe their ill-gotten loot belongs to them as the late tenant double-crossed them. Where else would a mobster hide than in the burbs; making for quite a contrast between middle class American and the mob will sort of remind readers of the haunting contrasting final scene of the Cagney film Public Enemy. Readers will appreciate this strong thriller as the American dream turns nightmarish when the Reeds become avaricious in achieving their personal quest as Marcus Sakey asks his audience would you ethically turn in $400,000 that you believe no one knows you found.

Harriet Klausner

Get it at the library....or just move on.
I like Elmore Leonard, and bought this on the strength of the cover blurb. Made it sound like the next great thing. The book starts out strong with a good hold up. Nice and gritty, good writing. Then settles into a very protracted middle section about an upper middle class couple who finds some of the loot. What do they do with it? Could be interesting, but trust me, its not. It just drags on and on. The bad guys are just thugs. The couple is stock- could have been taken from any generic medium-budget hollywood film of the last 10 years. The predicament never really develops. The writing is competent. I guess the most telling thing for me was realizing about 2/3 through that I was hoping the couple would just die so the book would end. Sounds cold, but there's nothing interesting here. Like a rejected CSI script. Elmore Leonard could write this in his sleep, but still wouldn't.