Good to a Fault is the story of Clara Purdy, a middle-aged woman who, while contemplating the emptiness in her life, is involved in a car accident with a young family. Through a sense of guilt and a desire to do the right thing, Clara decides to open her house to the three children and their cranky, shoplifting grandmother after Lorraine (the mother) is hospitalised with late-stage cancer. Clara’s dull and ordered life is thrown into disarray when the children’s father disappears and Clara is left to deal with the three children, Dolly (Darlene), Trevor and baby Pearce.

As Lorraine undergoes treatment, Clara turns her life upside down to make the best of the situation. With the assistance of a poemquoting priest, Lorraine’s brother Darwin and Mrs Zenko (Clara’s next-door neighbour), Clara and the children somehow manage to create some order out of the chaos that ensues. It is only when Lorraine’s release from hospital is imminent and the children’s father Clayton returns that Clara realises how much she has come to rely on the children filling a void in her life.

It is an engaging, sometimes thought provoking and enjoyable insight into one woman’s desire to ‘do the right thing’, regardless of the consequences to her wallet and well-being! Endicott won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize this year for this book.