FFB Review: The Good Detective by John McMahon

I have long been a fan of the books by John McMahon. I don’t know why more folks are not read and supporting his stuff. Having just finished his new one, Head Cases, coming out at the end of the month, I thought I would remind you of The Good Detective. This came out a few years back and was the first book of a series (The Evil Men Do and A Good Kill.) This a great series and one that is well worth your time.

 

 

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.

 

 

For more on the book, head over to Lesa Holstine’s blog where she has an interview with the author. You can read that interview here. This is one of those deals where the fictional character interviews the author. A short interview that also does not spoil the book unlike many such interviews out there on the internet and in print.

 

Amazon Associates Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3W5SSoO

 

My reading copy came by way of the Forest Green Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

 

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020, 2025

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Nothing But the Bones by Brian Panowich

Brian Panowich continues his multi-generational saga about the Burroughs crime family on Bull Mountain in McFalls County, Georgia, with Nothing But the Bones (Minotaur Books, April 2024). Most of the action takes place before the later events of Bull Mountain. The book is broken into three segments, the first one set in 1989, the second one in 1996, and the third one in 2007.

Misfit Nelson McKenna was born crippled, his family abused and mistreated him, then he was rejected by most of the world until Gareth Burroughs took him in as a teenager and diverted his formidable strength into an enforcer role for Burroughs’ criminal activities.

One night at a club McKenna sees a woman being mistreated and loses his temper, killing the bully in full view of a number of people. Burroughs doesn’t have enough political pull to protect McKenna from the legal consequences, so he gives him a place to run to and enough money to pay for the trip.

The mistreated woman invites herself along and the two hesitantly bond during the drive to Jacksonville, Florida, discovering both had been damaged by their parents and exploited by others. Clayton Burroughs, Gareth’s youngest son and the conscience of the Burroughs family, finds McKenna to bring him back to Georgia. Things go sideways rapidly in a series of inhumanely violent events that miraculously converge to deliver hope and happiness for both of the main characters, who are amazing creations.

The definition of family, of friendship, and of loyalty is explored here in the context of the poverty and hopelessness of rural Appalachian Georgia. Beautifully and powerfully written, this book is compulsively readable despite the brutality and callousness much of it portrays. I was immediately immersed and it was hard to put the book down. The time shifts are straightforward here and easier to follow than I found the repeated chronological disruptions of Bull Mountain. Not an easy read but fans of southern noir will welcome this addition to the Bull Mountain canon.

 

·         Publisher: Minotaur Books (April 16, 2024)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Hardcover: ‎336 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1250835240

·         ISBN-13‏: ‎978-1250835246

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Q5yTU3

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

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Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich

 

Bull Mountain (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015) is Brian Panowich’s blockbuster debut. The book won the 2016 Thriller Award for Best First Novel and the Southern Book Prize for Best Mystery. It was shortlisted for the Barry Award, the Anthony Award, The Georgia Townsend Book Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize. It was also selected for the 2016 Books All Georgians Should Read list by the Georgia Center of the Book. Its sequel Like Lions (Minotaur, 2019) is considered equally good, if not better.

Set in northern Georgia, this is the story of three generations of the Burroughs crime family who own most of Bull Mountain, where they make a living from producing and distributing first moonshine, then marijuana, and finally methamphetamine.

The entire family is involved in its illicit enterprises. They view themselves as a unit separate and apart from the rest of the world. “Family” is a word that crops up often, starting with the first chapter in 1949 and carrying through to the end. Deciding to work with a gun-running outfit in Florida was a big step; outsiders had long been viewed with suspicion. Echoes of the Corleones in The Godfather resonate in the background.

Finally in the third generation, Clayton Burroughs walks away from the family organization. Similar to the network television series Justified, where Raylan Givens enters law enforcement to separate himself from his career criminal father, Clayton Burroughs becomes the local sheriff, mostly to earn an honest living to please the woman he wanted to marry. He makes no attempt to enforce the law on Bull Mountain, even if state and Federal authorities stage occasional raids. Eventually an FBI agent approaches him with a plan to close the Burroughs’ lawless activities down for good and Clayton agrees to try it.

It is hard to say much about this book without giving away essential plot elements. Shockingly violent and brutal, the story is riveting from the first pages. I read it through in one sitting. I did find the disjointed chronology disruptive; the chapters move back and forth from 1949 to 2015 and points in between. I sometimes had to stop reading to check the chapter heading to orient myself.

An incredibly good book and an intriguing contribution to contemporary Southern fiction. Fans of Justified, the Colson Quinn stories by Ace Atkins, or the Wolfe crime family books by James Carlos Blake will likely enjoy this series.

·         Publisher: ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons; First Edition (July 7, 2015)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Hardcover: ‎ 304 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 039917396X

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0399173967

  

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2021

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Review: A Good Kill by John McMahon

A Good Kill by John McMahon marks the return of Detective P. T. Marsh first seen in The Good Detective and The Evil Men Do. Both books made my favorite of the year list. This is a series that must be read in order. This is especially true for A Good Kill as this read ties up some things that have been going on in this entire series.

 

A shooter at a school is very bad news anywhere. The shooter is in Fall Magnet Middle School and that means a full-scale response by the police department of Mason Falls, Georgia. P. T. Mason and his partner, Remy Morgan, arrive on campus to find one gunman holding three students and two teachers hostage. The hostages are being held in the art room.

 

It does not help matters that a teacher is wounded. That teacher needs urgent medical attention. The pressure mounts when Marsh learns that one of the students being held hostage is the thirteen-year-old, Avis Senza. She is the daughter of their boss, Police Chief Dana Senza.

 

The media already knows the gunman is Jed Harrington. Nobody knows why he is in the building with a gun, why he did any of this, and what he wants. His actions do make it clear that he intends to do more harm. He has to be stopped.

 

In the aftermath, it slowly becomes clear the events of that fateful day have links to other events and cases. Including a very personal case that has nearly destroyed Marsh and for good reason.

 

This is one of those really good reads that is nearly impossible to discuss without creating spoilers. A read of the publisher blurb on the hardback makes it clear that the publisher faced the same dilemma. This procedural is complicated in multiple ways, both professionally and personally. Not only are there current cases for the detectives to work, there is the one big case that goes back several years regarding an overall story arc that has been the heart and soul of this complicated series.

 

One could easily think of these three books in the series as a trilogy of sorts. I had come to that conclusion by the time I hit the author note at the end which seems to make clear that the next book from this very talented author will be focused around a new character.

 

The entire series, including A Good Kill, is strongly recommended. 

 

A Good Kill

John McMahon

https://www.johnmcmahonbooks.com/

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/667288/a-good-kill-by-john-mcmahon/

ISBN# 978-0-593-32836-1

June 2021

Hardback (also available in audio and eBook formats)

384 Pages 

 

Big time thanks to publicist Wiley Saichek who reached out to me recently to offer the book. I had no idea it was coming out until his email. Scott and I are both big fans of this series so getting the offer was and is very cool. 

 

Kevin R. Tipple © 2021

Review: The Evil Men Do by John McMahon

The Evil Men Do by John McMahon starts just a few weeks after The Good Detective. Mason Falls Detective P. T. Marsh is doing his best to stay sober and move on with his life. The old demons are there, but they slumber in their cages for now. Not only is he sober, for now, he still has a job. This beautiful Tuesday morning in May finds Marsh and his partner, Remy Morgan, at the Georgia Safe doing range practice with their weapons. The annual weapon recertification is going to have to wait as Chief Jeff Pernacek wants them to go check on a friend of his, Ennis Fultz.

A retired, for the most part, hard-nosed real estate magnate and a bit eccentric, Ennis Fultz is known for his punctuality among other things. He missed the monthly Tuesday morning bridge game without any notice, so Pernacek wants them to go out to his house by the Condesale Gorge and check. Within minutes of arrival, it is obvious somebody has forced entry into the home. They also have a murder to solve as Mr. Ennis Fultz is dead and clearly has been that way for quite a few hours.

Ennis Fultz did not get wealthy by being a nice guy. He went over or through people for his success and the suspect list of locals with a reason to kill him is a long one. Who did the deed and why are just two questions to be answered in this complex crime novel where things escalate quickly.

While one could start here with The Evil Men Do, it would be far better to start with the previously mentioned first book in the series before reading this excellent police procedural. A wide foundation was laid with The Good Detective and there are many references to those events in The Evil Men Do. As a result, what can be said about this book is limited as to avoid any and all spoilers which means, among other things, a secondary storyline cannot be mentioned.

John McMahon has weaved a complex tale in each read as well as a complex overarching storyline across two books. I firmly believe he will be at the top of the award lists in the coming months. If his books are not on your radar, they should be. The Good Detective which I reviewed here as well as The Evil Men Do are both strongly recommended. 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

Review: The Good Detective by John McMahon

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. Next in the series, The Evil Men Do, is scheduled to be released March 3, 2020.

For more on the book, head over to Lesa Holstine’s blog where she has an interview with the author. You can read that interview here. This is one of those deals where the fictional character interviews the author. A short interview that also does not spoil the book unlike many such interviews out there on the internet and in print. 

My reading copy came by way of the Forest Green Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. I am also on the holds list for the next book.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2020

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Market Call--GEORGIA POETS

Full-length poetry manuscripts are now being considered for The Texas Review Press Breakthrough Poetry Prize: Georgia. The TRP Breakthrough Prize is designed to find and champion emerging poets in every state of the American South. This year, we seek book-length manuscripts of 50-80 pages from residents of Georgia who have not published a full-length collection of poems. Please include a cover letter with your submission, as well as two title pages—one with your contact information, including e-mail address, mailing address, and phone number—and the other with the title only. Include an acknowledgments page for previous publications. Paul Ruffin to judge.

There is no reading fee. The Breakthrough Poetry Prize entails publication of the winning manuscript, national distribution via the Texas A&M University Press Consortium, plus twenty-five free copies furnished to author upon publication.

All submissions must be sent as e-mail attachments to  (replace (at) with @) in one of the following formats: MS Word 1997-2003 (.doc), MS Word 2007/2010 (.docx); Rich Text Format (.rtf); or Portable Digital Format (.pdf). Please include a short (75-100 word) bio as a separate attachment in one of the above formats. Any questions should be directed to  (replace (at) with @ in sending email) .

Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2012. Texas Review Press looks forward to considering your work.

Event: A Deadly Dinner

Mignon Ballard
Kathleen Delaney
Mary Anna Evans
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Marion Moore Hill
Randy Rawls
Fran Stewart
Jaden E. Terrell


Are the authors attending A DEADLY DINNER from 6:00 to 9:00 PM on October, 23 at
the Harris Arts Center in Calhoun Georgia. Cost is $25.00 and you get a sit
down dinner, time to talk with the authors and door prizes of autographed books.

Details at:
http://www.cgarts.org/Programs/LiteraryGuild/tabid/800/Default.aspx  

Sounds like a fun event!