No good deed goes unpunished: One Good Deed by David Jackson #bookreview #OneGoodDeed #NetGalley

Elliott has never thought of himself as a hero. Until one dark night he meets Rebecca, a scared and vulnerable young woman who needs his help. There’s a man harassing her, following her; would he mind pretending to be her boyfriend, just while she walks home, to put him off?
And that is that – just a favour for a stranger – until there is a knock at Elliott’s door. It’s the man who was following Rebecca. He claims he’s her ex-boyfriend, but it’s clear that he’s been stalking her. He’s obsessed, dangerously so. He wants Rebecca, and he will do anything to have her.
When Elliott eventually tries to tell him the truth, the man doesn’t believe him. The only way to save himself is to get Rebecca to explain. There’s just one problem: Rebecca is nowhere to be found. And now it looks like one good deed will cost Elliott everything…

💛💛💛💛.5

Hi and welcome to my review of One Good Deed!

One Good Deed is the fourth David Jackson novel I’ve read, and by now, it has become something of a summer ritual to look forward to. I always have a great time with his thrillers and One Good Deed was no exception.

They say no good deed goes unpunished and well, Elliott is about to find that out for himself when he meets Rebecca on the street at night. She is being followed and begs him to walk home with him, pretending they’re in a relationship. Elliott is exactly the kind of guy you’d ask to do that. A bit shy, modest, the quintessential good guy. Little does he know that Rebecca’s stalker is a bit unhinged to say the least, and this one small favour will escalate completely.

And that is exactly what this author does best: he takes a small action, an unnoteworthy event, and runs with it. The result is perhaps a teensy bit too extreme to be entirely plausible but who even cares when it’s this entertaining?! I sure didn’t, I had a ball! If I were a nail-biter, my nails would have been bitten down to the quick by the time I’d finished it!

David Jackson has been dubbed the king of one more chapter and the master of the unputdownable thriller, and both are spot on. The short chapters and their unrelenting pace continuously invited me to read just one more chapter, but I could never stop after just one. (It’s a small miracle I made it to work on time!) At night and nearing the finale, I had to force myself to put it down and get some sleep, for I’m not the best sleeper at the best of times and I was afraid the adrenalin of the last sixty or so pages would keep me up all night.

One Good Deed is an addictive, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller. If you like your thrillers action-packed and nail-bitingly tense and/or you love a cat-loving antihero to root for, One Good Deed should be at the top of your shopping list. Recommended.

One Good Deed is out today in paperback and digital formats.

Massive thanks to Viper Books and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.