One Good Deed

"I’m not a judge – I just coordinate the process – but I can tell you why I personally admired One Good Deed : Baldacci writes a damn good story, and he doesn’t stick to convention. He’ll write a tender family drama one year, political or FBI-based thrillers the next, now a unputdownable noir crime novel set in the post-war 1940s. One Good Deed follows a WWII combat vet who is just out of prison and gets offered a job to collect a debt—and soon finds himself embroiled in a small-town murder. Beautiful prose, a compelling plot, but it’s the anti-hero protagonist who makes this book shine. Recurring characters always have been, and likely always will be, a mainstay in fiction. I think they are beloved because they allow readers to experience the characters’ growth and evolution over the long haul."