The Evil Men Do

January 13, 2020
In McMahon’s disappointing sequel to 2019’s The Good Detective, Mason Falls, Ga., homicide detective P.T. Marsh investigates the suspicious death of ruthless, aging real estate magnate Ennis Fultz, whose oxygen tank appears to have malfunctioned. Suspects in what turns into a murder case include a lover who may be a dominatrix, irate farmers who lost their land because of Fultz, and a drug-addicted truck driver who delivered oxygen to Fultz. Meanwhile, Marsh must also deal with an accident that almost killed his father-in-law and put the man in a coma. A stock emotionally wounded detective, Marsh grieves for his wife and son, who died in an unsolved hit-and-run, and laments various bad decisions he’s made involving alcohol and destructive relationships. Evocative descriptions are a plus (“low-lying creeping jenny grew horizontally, moving through the scrub like a water moccasin”), but the story line has a tired, formulaic feel to it. McMahon needs to find a more original plot next time to match his assured prose. Author tour. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary.