A New York Times Book Review Top 10 Crime Novel for the Year“John McMahon is one of those rare writers who seem to have sprung out of nowhere. His first novel, The Good Detective, which is pretty much perfect, features a decent if flawed hero battling personal troubles while occupied with a murder case of great consequence to his community.”–New York Times Book ReviewIntroducing Detective P.T. … Review
Introducing Detective P.T. Marsh in a swift and bruising debut where Elmore Leonard’s staccato prose meets Greg Iles’ Southern settings.
How can you solve a crime if you’ve killed the prime suspect?
Detective P.T. Marsh was a rising star on the police force of Mason Falls, Georgia–until his wife and young son died in an accident. Since that night, he’s lost the ability to see the line between smart moves and disastrous decisions. Such as when he agrees to help out a woman by confronting her abusive boyfriend. When the next morning he gets called to the scene of his newest murder case, he is stunned to arrive at the house of the very man he beat up the night before. He could swear the guy was alive when he left, but can he be sure? What’s certain is that his fingerprints are all over the crime scene.
The trouble is only beginning. When the dead body of a black teenager is found in a burned-out field with a portion of a blackened rope around his neck, P.T. realizes he might have killed the number-one suspect of this horrific crime.
Amid rising racial tension and media scrutiny, P.T. uncovers something sinister at the heart of the boy’s murder–a conspiracy leading all the way back to the time of the Civil War. Risking everything to unravel the puzzle even as he fights his own personal demons, P.T. races headlong toward an incendiary and life-altering showdown.
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I loved this book! The story begins with a literal punch to the face and never lets up, delivering blow after unexpected blow. P.T. Marsh is a wonderfully flawed protagonist and the narrative voice cracks true as a Georgia pecan shell.
I listened to the audio version of this book and was totally impressed by it. I’m not surprised it was nominated for a coveted Edgar award by the Mystery Writers of America. The writing is tight, the plot is well thought out, and the protagonist is the perfect combination of flawed and heroic. If you like your detective fiction hard-boiled, this is the book for you! Five stars.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
This is a gritty, compelling, emotional, terrifying story that I escaped right into and only came out for air when I had to get some sleep. I dove back in the next day as soon as I was able and stayed there even after I stopped reading the author’s words. This story has stuck with me since.
Detective P.T. Marsh is still trying to recover after losing his wife and son in an accident almost 2 years ago. He had always had good instincts but he is seriously off his game, drinking too much and having blackouts. His poor judgment leads him to the home of an abusive boyfriend after meeting his girlfriend and noticing the bruises covering her body. After beating the guy to shreds he leaves him with a deadly warning. Back on the job the next day he and his partner are called to a murder. Soon he realizes they are headed on the same path he took to the victim of his beat-down. Did he blackout and kill the guy? No way, but can he really be sure? Especially when the techs are going to find evidence he was there the night before.
While he tries to cover his tracks he makes a huge discovery in the victim’s garage. Evidence of arson that leads them to a field that been burned. As he looks over the fire scene he makes another grisly discovery. A young black teen’s body with a noose around his neck. Did the abusive boyfriend lynch this kid and light the field on fire to cover his crime?
P.T. takes on the case while trying to keep his involvement secret from everyone. What he finds is appalling and shocking and could rock the town of Mason Falls to its core.
The author has created vivid characters P.T. Marsh is a strong man. Flawed, smart, a complicated man facing demons of his own. Finding himself wrapped up, in this case, may be the thing that finally breaks him. His partner Remy is a young rookie who knows something is up with her partner but he shuts her out at every turn. His chief and the other officers have faith in him, but he is holding on to his job by the tips of his fingers. He made a stupid decision to try to scare off an abuser and it could be the final nail in his coffin.
Mr. McMahon takes on serious issues in his debut novel. A layered story featuring the racial divide found in Mason Falls, Georgia dating back decades, back even as far the civil war. Little clues lead to huge reveals. With the current climate these days it wasn’t as hard to wrap my head around these ghastly acts as it would have been just a couple of years ago. So sadly, this story definitely had a ripped from the headlines feel. Something you could see on the nightly news today.
McMahon does an excellent job of setting each scene taking the reader right into the drama. This story was an emotional journey both for the characters and for me as the reader. Anger, repulsion, fear, heartbreak, and more. The story had a slow build but soon following P.T. step by step was riveting. The dialogue was true to life with a few curses as expected in this genre.
For me, John McMahon is now an author to watch. He ends his acknowledgment with “P.T. Marsh will be back. Stay tuned.” That makes me happy because I believe the man has turned a corner and I would like to see where the author takes this character.
Set in Mason Falls, Georgia, The Good Detective by John McMahon is a complicated novel of family history, legacy, southern tradition, and in one major way, redemption. In this intense police procedural, deals are made with the devils you know to get not just what you want, but what you need.
Detective P. I. Marsh desperately needs to have his wife and son back with him. Thanks to a recent tragic accident late one night, that will never happen again on this mortal plane. Now he needs booze to push down the pain and to stop from thinking about his loss and the fact he continues to live without them.
That heavy drinking means he does not often remember what he did the previous evening. As the book jacket telegraphs to everyone—“How Do You Solve A Crime If You Killed The Prime Suspect?”— this is precisely Detective Marsh’s problem. He does not know if he killed the abusive boyfriend of the stripper known to all by her stage name of “Crimson.” He was there, the guy is very much dead, and he can’t remember what happened after he showed up and sent her on her way before explaining reality to the abusive boyfriend. It is possible, but he does not think he is so far gone that he actually did it. He just does not know and has no one he can confide in and no evidence one way or the other.
With that issue on him, he has his own murder case to solve. There just might be a link back to the other murder case which might be a way of proving his innocence. He has to work hard and fast to solve his own case with his colleagues actively working the other murder case. Their hard work may soon result in a situation where he is named as the one and only suspect.
His case is bad as a young African American male was found burned to death in a farmer’s field. That was bad, but the fact that, at some point, a noose was around his neck makes things so much worse. Beyond that link, there are other links to southern history in this small part of Georgia. It soon becomes clear that these killings happen in pairs and another child is missing.
A fast paced and intense police procedural, The Good Detective takes several classic tropes and throws them into a blender before tossing in a bunch of other stuff. What comes out is an intense read that has hints of Shakespeare and Greek tragedies, more than a dash of dark humor, and a trace of redemption that is not one hundred percent pure, among other elements. Race and history play major roles in the read as does grief and trying to go on after you have lost everything that truly mattered.
The Good Detective by John McMahon is a very good read and strongly recommended.
My reading copy came by way of the Forest Green Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2020
There’s a lot going on in this book–one might argue there’s too much. But this debut police procedural by John McMahon manages to weave all the threads together to create a thrilling story.
After losing his wife and young son to an accident, Detective P.T. Marsh is struggling with severe alcohol issues leading to questionable decisions and occasional memory loss. When he is called to a murder scene, he is shocked to find himself at a house he’d been to the night before to teach a lesson to an abused woman’s boyfriend. The boyfriend is dead, strangled, and Marsh can’t be sure whether the man was alive or dead when he left him. When the dead man ends up being suspected in the lynching of an African-American pastor’s son, Marsh is in the crosshairs: how to solve a murder when he may have killed the prime suspect? While investigating the lynching, Marsh uncovers a decades-long conspiracy involving some of the most powerful people in town. Amid rising racial tensions and a media demanding answers, the pressure starts closing in from all sides. Marsh struggles to stay one step ahead of myriad forces that would like nothing better than to take him and his investigation down.
This could have been a hot mess but for McMahon’s skillful writing. Instead, an explosive and satisfying ending will have you eager for the next installment in this planned series. I suspect both Marsh and McMahon have a lot more to say.
Detective P T Marsh and his partner, Remy, are investigating what they feel is a hate crime. A young black teenager has been tortured, beaten, hanged, and set on fire. What Detective Marsh did was something no cop should ever do … he tampered with the evidence. He removed the rope around the young man’s neck in the hope that they can keep this part of his death secret.
Amid rising racial tension and media scrutiny, P.T. uncovers something sinister at the heart of the young boy’s murder–a conspiracy leading all the way back to the time of the Civil War.
This is the first in a series featuring P T Marsh. He’s always been respected as a good cop, but the death of his pregnant wife and son has him reeling. He’s drinking way too much, but it’s the only way he can put his memories to rest. If he continues the drinking, it won’t be only his health affected .. it may cost him his job.
There’s lots of action with frequent changes of direction and multiple varied suspects that bear watching. Marsh is an interesting character, not the pillar of the framework around which law enforcement is build. Characters are deftly drawn amid an intricate plot. I look forward to reading the books following.
Many thanks to the author / Putnam Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
John McMahon’s good detective, P.T. Marsh, will be the first to tell you he’s a bit lost. Still reeling from the death of his wife and child, he spends most nights drinking himself to oblivion, which leads to being in the wrong place and time when a local white supremacist is beaten to death. . .meaning he doesn’t remember if he was the one who murdered the man whose death he must know investigate. When a second murder is discovered, P.T. finds his way back to the world, even if solving the mystery means he ends up in jail. Set in a small town in Georgia, McMahon builds a world haunted by the sins of the south’s slave-holding past and populates it with people you feel like you’ve known forever, whether good or bad. I ripped through the book in two days and could easily see this made into a movie.
Just ok
A great first in series read. Looking forward to the next one.
It was all these things. I don’t know why I don’t feel like giving it a 5 rating, but something about it keeps me from going all out over it.
I really enjoyed this novel! Yes, it dealt with a difficult subject matter, but unfortunately it’s a subject based in reality. The violence, although it might be considered graphic at times, was not gratuitous and it was necessary to the story. The writer’s style was smooth, fast-paced, and attention grabbing. It is a definite must-read, and I’ll be looking out for more from Detective P.T. Marsh in the future.
I liked the plot a lot. Not a fan of loose cannon cops. Much of what he does is illegal but its effective. PT Marsh helps a stripper out by “talking to” her boyfriend about his abusive treatment towards her. The next day he is investigating the man’s death.
Also, a black teen is found lynched and burned. An ex-con is suspected and killed. The chief of police is ready to close the case but Marsh isn’t buying it.
As he digs deeper, he stumbles upon “The Order” and a racist group of wealthy white powerful men who have a disgusting secret ritual.
In The Good Detective, McMahon skillfully blends the old and the new and weaves it into spun gold.
First fiction is dangerous business: many aspire, few succeed. Not so with John McMahon’s debut, The Good Detective. Tight, fast and addictive, I blistered this book in a single day. It has everything top-drawer crime fiction demands: murder, conflict, and a damaged, compelling hero, all delivered in prose so crisp and clean McMahon presents like an old pro. If he had a second novel on the shelves, I’d be reading it right now.
The Good Detective is a debut with all of the ingredients: snappy procedural details, a sharp sense of place in the Deep South, and relentless momentum. John McMahon’s outstanding first in the series introduces a sardonic and sympathetic lead in P.T. Marsh, and launches both McMahon and Marsh into what promises to be a great career in crime fiction.
Sometimes, no matter how many problems a person has caused, you still know there is good in them. Such is the case with former Detective P.T. Marsh. He’s kind of a smart mouth too. I just love cheeky smart ass detectives. I spent a lot of time trying to decide if he was the “Good Detective”. I think so, but I bet every person has a different opinion.
This was well-written and a fast read. John McMahon created characters you will care about and those you will hate; just like in a real mystery. Excellent character definition. Both kinds are necessary in a story like this.
I think this may be John McMahon’s first book and it’s good. There was no time this story slowed down for me nor did my mind ever stray. While it is a great crime fiction story, what carries it and will keep you reading to the end is the most important aspect of reading to me…this Marsh character. He’s the kind you want to know better. Dear Mr. McMahon, write some more about P.T. Marsh for us, ok?