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Good Sam
Literature & Fiction
What would you do if you found a bag containing $100,000 on your doorstep one morning? After years covering murders, disasters and tragedy for Los Angeles TV news, Kate Bradley knows that violence and cruelty are everywhere and that good is hard to find. When she is assigned the story about ten people who have each found $100,000 in cash on their front porch, Kate is intrigued by the anonymous Good Samaritan, dubbed Good Sam, who is behind it all. As interest in the free money sweeps across the country, Kate finds that the elusive Good Sam and her exclusive interview with him thrust her into the national spotlight. Even as his message captivates viewers and wins ratings, Kate suspects he may not be all he claims to be and that the real Good Sam is still out there. Searching for answers, Kate unravels the powerful and unexpected reason behind the mysterious cash gifts, the true identity of Good Sam becomes the biggest surprise story of her career, turning her personal and professional life upside down.
Book Bubbles from Good Sam
Can You Write a Mystery About Something Good?
Our media is fixated on murderers, psychopaths, and mobsters. Why do we spend time tracking heinous deeds when we long for positive news? Do we endure the details of a gritty mystery to see good triumph over evil? Is chasing a deadly criminal simply a device to raise the story stakes? I grew weary of getting inside the head of a psychopath in order to enjoy a mystery. The gruesomeness was continually escalating. In order to be “current and edgy,” each story increased the grisly-factor. I wondered: could I create a mystery where we search for someone who’s doing good? With that question in hand, I wrote Good Sam, a mystery that follows reporter Kate Bradley who covers disasters, murders and tragedy. When she’s assigned the story about an anonymous Good Samaritan who leaves $100,000 for strangers throughout L.A., Kate thinks he must have an ulterior, uncharitable motive. Soon she unravels the reason behind the gifts. The identity of Good Sam becomes the biggest story of her career. I hope Good Sam is a compelling mystery without killers or dead bodies, yet with real stakes, twists, romance, and an inspiring story about the search for someone who is doing good.
About the Excerpt
After years of covering murders, disasters and tragedy for Los Angeles TV news, Kate Bradley knows that violence and cruelty are everywhere and that good is hard to find. When she is assigned the story about ten people who have each found $100,000 cash on their front porch, Kate is intrigued by the anonymous good Samaritan, dubbed Good Sam, who is behind it all. But soon, due to station politics, Kate is pulled off the story and assigned back to a soft news beat. Her hard news antenna gets tweaked again when she covers a rare Los Angeles rainstorm that turns into a live rescue mission in Malibu Canyon. In this excerpt she gets pulled into the life-and-death situation unfolding before her eyes.
