The Good Samaritan

In The Good Samaritan, manipulation is portrayed not merely as a tool for personal gain but as a destructive compulsion rooted in an inability to maintain healthy relationships. This compulsion is most evident in Laura, whose work at the End of the Line helpline becomes an outlet for exerting the power she feels she has lost in her own life.

A motif of addiction permeates the novel, but the most central example of addictive behavior does not involve literal substance use; rather, it is Laura’s deep-seated need to control others. Notes on her time in foster care confirm that this is a long-standing tendency: “She has a desire to get her own way and is overtly charming but can be covertly hostile towards others” (298). As an adult, she has perfected this deception, presenting herself as an “office mum” to her colleagues while secretly preying on vulnerable callers. She methodically guides individuals like Chantelle toward suicide, reinforcing their despair by asking leading questions such as, “Do you think they might grow up resenting you?” (33). By orchestrating their deaths, Laura seizes a form of ultimate control over life and death, the psychological effects of which are potent: “To have spent time working with a candidate […] and then to be rewarded with their final breath is intoxicating” (99).