Marcus Sakey Asks an Important Question: "Are You Good People?"
Here's a little hypothetical question for you: what would you do if you happened upon a boatload of cash? What if its rightful owner was beyond caring? What if you really, really felt you needed it? What would a bad person do? What would Good People do? Our story begins with a robbery and a murder, and then a fruitless trip to a fertility clinic. The robbery at a Chicago nightclub had netted the four perps a bundle of cash, but one of them disappeared with the loot after plugging Bobby Witkowski. Whether it's the death of his brother or the disappearance of about $400K (along with a satchel full of illicit pharmaceuticals) that most angers Jack Witkowski is probably immaterial: suffice it to say he is greatly peeved. When Chicagoans Tom and Anna Reed find bundles of hundred dollar bills stashed in the apartment of their recently deceased tenant, it seems like a gift from benevolent gods. Their credit cards are already maxed out and their Lincoln Park conversion is mortgaged to the hilt in the wake of a string of unsuccessful in vitro treatments. With their tenant dead and gone and no claimants in sight, however, the Reeds decide to let the childish ditty be their guide: "finders keepers..." becomes their mantra. Problem being that the losers aren't merely weeping: Jack Witkowski is pretty certain that the young couple know where the cash is, and he is most assuredly one very bad man. And Witkowski isn't the only dry-eyed loser out there: one very scary-looking Superfly-stylin' drug dealer is pretty certain that the Reeds know where his pilfered inventory has disappeared to... and a CPD detective has a hunch, too, about just how to break the biggest case of the year and finish his career on a high note. Looks like everyone has major plans for several hundred grand in used bills... The third novel out of Chicago-based author Marcus Sakey (The Blade Itself, At the City's Edge), Good People is an examination of a classic moral conundrum. Sakey's Reeds, a stylish yuppie couple - the titular "good people" - prove themselves quite gray in terms of a black and white world, one divided into good and bad people. The bad people are definitely bad; there's no question of that, but how good are the good people? As the Reeds deal with the fallout of their green and wrinkled windfall, Sake y depicts the unraveling of a heretofore tidy and cosseted world. Nothing - no thing - is safe, however, with Jack Witkowski in the picture. Senses honed by a lifetime of scamming and violence; Witkowski is the embodiment of cunning and ruthlessness. Against his casual brutality, white-bread WASPs like the Reeds don't seem to stand a chance. They're castaways in an urban jungle, with nary a reality television camera in sight. The pacing of Good People, in the other hand, would put reality television to shame, especially if one were (like the Reeds) living it: heart-pounding action alternates with idyllic interludes even as the bad guys regroup for another pass. Witkowski, as the Reeds learn to their dismay, is nothing if not relentless. Sakey's characters are, as always, remarkably human - the Reeds aren't that different from the slightly self-absorbed couple in front of you at Starbucks; Witkowski could easily be that dangerous looking pool player in the shadows at the corner bar. Anyone looking would know immediately that the three don't belong in the same room. He's a little hard on his secondary characters: virtually all of them would be wearing the red security uniform of death on a "Star Trek episode." Settings are broadly sketched, including glimpses of the gentrification of Chicago's north side and a wild shootout at a high-end downtown mall. Overall, however, the major thrust of the novel is the moral question at its very core: are the Reeds, as they seem to believe on page one, Good People? I'd have to say no; probably not. And by page 323, it's pretty certain they've decided that they really aren't, either. all content copyright © 2001 to present by scmrak
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