Good Guys by Sharon Bala

Reviewed by Pamela Sinclair

Claire Talbot has spent most of her career working in reputation management for large corporations. She has recently swapped this soulless work, which her ex-husband criticizes her for, for a small NGO where she can put her talents to use. The NGO, started by former musician turned philanthropist, Crispin St. Onge, whom Claire first met when she was a starry-eyed 15-year-old.

Crispin is the face, name, and driving force of the NGO. Children of the World is on the brink of financial ruin when Clair is contacted by an A-list celebrity, Dallas Hayden, interested in volunteering at one of the organization’s orphanages. In Santa Rosa, Dallas is taken into the mountains on a rescue mission where she and an employee from the orphanage find an infant suffering from an ear infection, club feet, and possibly malnutrition. Dallas and the employee return to the orphanage with the child, and Dallas becomes instrumental in nursing the infant back to health. After several days, Dallas wants to adopt the baby even though she has living parents and siblings. Dallas promises a hefty donation to the charity, and they facilitate initial negotiations with the parents via their manager, Lucca. The promised donation is a massive sum that will rescue Children of the World from the brink of collapse and help them reinstate their services in other countries.

A tenacious reporter familiar with religious missionary work writes a human-interest piece on the organization’s founder and becomes curious. Emmanuelle begins to dig, and all is not what it seems. Some project claims have been overstated, and through her investigation, she uncovers a crime. As Emmanuelle gets closer to exposing the crime, charity employees shrink from the responsibility they have to protect the people they are there to help. Fingers begin to point, looking for the person inside the charity guilty of betrayal. As the characters navigate the crisis, they discover ugly truths about their principles. The uncovered crime ultimately leads to the organization’s demise, while individuals strive to protect their reputations through damage control.

Good Guys is an unflinching examination of the world of global charitable work. Told from multiple points of view and jumping from the charitable headquarters in Toronto to the charity’s operations in Central America, the motivations, successes, and failures of the charity are examined. It raises questions about the power dynamics of philanthropy in impoverished countries. The strength of the novel is in the sharp writing, and it represents all sides and does not shy away from its critique of the do-gooders. A propulsive story, no sides are taken; readers will be left with a satisfying sense of this complex tale. This was a great read, and I highly recommend it.

About the Author

Sharon Bala’s bestselling debut novel, The Boat People (2018), won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and the Newfoundland and Labrador Award for fiction, was a finalist for Canada Reads, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and was longlisted for the Aspen Woods Literary Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. It has been translated into four languages. In 2017, Sharon Won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. She lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she is the Creative Non-Fiction Editor at Riddle Fence.

About the Reviewer

Pamela Sinclair is a writer and lifelong reader. She enjoys reading multiple genres, both fiction and nonfiction. She lives in Halifax, NS, with her husband, daughter, and a grumpy grey cat named Ben. Pamela is currently working on her first novel.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ McClelland & Stewart

• Publication date ‏ : ‎ Jan. 20 2026

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Print length ‏ : ‎ 376 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0771005237

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0771005237