It’s a Mystery: “The person who talks less is the one with the upper hand.”
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The Evil Men Do
By John McMahon
Putnam, 2020
P.T. Marsh, the hard-nosed cop-cum-hero of John McMahon’s smashing debut novel The Good Detective (2019), is back with a vengeance in The Evil Men Do. Oh, he’s still grieving the presumably accidental deaths of his wife, Lena and young son, Jonas, 17 months earlier. Plus, he’s facing charges for using excessive force in apprehending a murder suspect—albeit one who was villainous and guilty as sin. On the positive side, he’s got an ace partner in Remy Morgan (no slouch in the looks department) and he’s dating the medical examiner, Sarah Raines, who is as attractive as she is razor-sharp.
His beat is Mason Falls, Georgia, where he and his partner are currently looking into the death of real-estate magnate Ennis Fultz. At first, his death looks unsuspicious, given that he was elderly and had a heart condition. But autopsy results soon reveal that he died from nitrogen poisoning after someone tampered with his home oxygen tank. As Marsh and Remy dig deeper into a case which is now officially a murder they soon learn that the old man was wildly disliked (and that’s putting it mildly). He was one of the town’s wealthiest citizens, with ties to the chief of police and other so-called pillars of the community.
Very much to the point, Fultz was known for his uncanny ability to hoard a wide range of arcane information and, almost flawlessly, put it to optimum use when he deems the time is right. This means, surprise surprise, there is no shortage of suspects, including an embittered ex-wife, crafty business competitors, hostile neighbors, and an escort who made weekly “house calls,” plus the driver from the chemical company who delivered the oxygen tank.
As Marsh and Morgan dig deeply into the case by, among other avenues, following the money (where have we heard that before?), it becomes clear that this is no isolated case of revenge. It may be part of a dark web of crimes that appear to be linked to Fultz’s past. Then Marsh’s father-in-law, Marvin, is seriously injured and hovers near death:
Lena’s dad. I still referred to him as “Pop” seventeen months after my wife’s death…. Marvin had become my friend, but he was also my connection to Lena and Jonas. If I lost him, what part of my wife and son went with him?
As Marsh pulls out all the stops, he finds a definite connection between the current investigation and the deaths of his family members. Now that it’s deeply personal, he crosses a lot of lines. Still, true to the core of his character, he risks everything for what he sees as justice for himself and those he holds dear.
Meanwhile, interspersed throughout the narrative, are a series of vignettes depicting a young girl in imminent peril. All of them are seemingly unconnected to the plot and more than a little puzzling. Then bingo, they link up with what has been occurring in a most unexpected manner. It’s a masterful aha moment.
The Evil Men Do surpasses the promise of The Good Detective. It’s a superior mystery on every level, affirming McMahon’s place as up there with the best in the genre. Plus, while this novel is complete in itself, there are enough cleverly placed cliffhangers to leave us eager for the next P.T. Marsh adventure.
—Irma Heldman is a veteran publishing executive and book reviewer with a penchant for mysteries. One of her favorite gigs was her magazine column “On the Docket” under the pseudonym O. L. Bailey.