THE COMMISSARY

In Doonan’s novel, a group of unhoused people investigate a new initiative that’s been exploiting those it purports to help.

Middle-aged Mike Walpole lives in a small Californian tent community with Dutch Bob, Pacifico, and a teenage girl named Aubrey, whom Mike looks out for. Pacifico is about to leave them; he’s signed up for the Porchlight program, a business initiative with a unique approach to tackling America’s housing problem. Funded by sponsor donations, Porchlight pays host families $1,500 per month to have an unhoused person live with them. In exchange, the new residents must wear tracking bracelets and maintain blogs so that sponsors can follow their journeys. Porchlight’s profit comes from its Commissary, a bespoke online store where members can use donations to buy items at a heavy markup. Porchlight is now valued at over $1 billion and has found housing for more than 22,000 people; all is not well, however. Porchlight’s founder, 35-year-old Conrad Abbott, is trying to keep its tech designer, 44-year-old Melvin Minkler, from exercising his stock options, and seductive 34-year-old career criminal Pern Grand exploits Melvin’s discontent in a plan to commandeer the Commissary and sell drugs to ex-users. Soon, people in the program are dying from overdoses, including someone with a connection to Mike. Can Mike and his found family uncover what’s going on? Doonan presents chapters primarily from the third-person viewpoints of Mike, Pern, Heather, and Conrad, with a few other POVs thrown in. The prose is simple and free-flowing, the dialogue is unobtrusive, and the story will draw readers in and keep them guessing over the course of the novel. The issue of homelessness is handled with sensitivity; Doonan neither lingers on nor glosses over the hardships of life on the streets, preferring instead to focus on characterization. Mike, Dutch Bob, and Aubrey are relatable, though Pern, Melvin, and Conrad are somewhat familiar types.

An engaging narrative with constructive social commentary.