Anyone who reads crime fiction is familiar with the alcoholic ex-cop private investigator character. Randy Chalmers is an ex-cop who gets sober and makes millions as an architect, but when his sponsor dies of an apparent overdose he steps into the role. He goes around town, roughing people up, shaking them down for information and trying to find out what happened and who was at fault. Deep down, Randy knows that it was his own fault – at least partially. Life got good for him in sobriety. He got busy and drifted away from AA and his sponsor. If he hadn’t been selfishly focused on his career and his personal life, he would have known that his old sponsor had been struggling.
Barden surrounds Randy with a cast of AA’s, all tailored to their Southern CA (Laguna Beach) context. I found the supporting cast to be caricatures, but most of them were interesting enough for me to care what happened to them.
The book is a thriller and Barden generates real suspense, although there aren’t any big plot twists or surprises. The suspense is character-driven. How badly is this guy going to screw up his life before he’s done with this quest? How much damage is this dry drunk going to do to everyone around him?
There is a ton of AA in the book. I haven’t researched Barden, but I assume he’s a friend of Bill’s. The jargon is explained well, so that you don’t have to be in recovery to understand what’s happening, but I can’t imagine a normie enjoying the book. Most of the action is beneath the skin. If you haven’t lived in that skin, I’m not sure you would relate or care.
I enjoyed the book, but I found it hard to root for Randy Chalmers. Barden does give him enough self awareness and empathy to make him interesting, but 300 pages of a tough guy who is a simmering volcano gets a little tedious. That said, Barden is a great writer and I love AA themes and sober characters, so this is at least a four-star book and I recommend it.
SOBER CURATOR SPOILER ALERT: Randy goes around trying to do “the next right thing,” and failing about 90% of the time. He does help a few people, but he mostly hurts his family, friends and strangers in his self-righteous stupor. In my experience, this type of willful behavior leads to poor outcomes, but lady luck intervenes for Randy to solve a wide swath of his biggest problems. That part felt inauthentic.
The Sobees Addiction Fiction by Will Thatcher Score: 4 out of 5
A Curated List of Additional Reviews about The Next Right Thing
- ‘The Next Right Thing’: A Crime Novel With Insights Into Addiction – The Atlantic
- Book review: ‘The Next Right Thing,’ by Dan Barden – The Washington Post
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