The other night, William Kent Krueger introduced debut author John McMahon to an audience at The Poisoned Pen. McMahon is the author of The Good Detective, a book that received a rave notice in The New York Times. Marilyn Stasio said The Good Detective “is pretty much perfect”. https://nyti.ms/2UKkSMI
You can order a signed copy of The Good Detective through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2FplGl1
You might want to seriously consider supporting a debut author. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, sent an email to readers earlier this week. It was before McMahon’s appearance at the bookstore. But, her reasons why readers should show up to meet a debut author are fitting for why we should support debut authors as well. Here’s part of that email.
“This is a good time to emphasize how important it is to support debut authors. To make them feel welcome at The Pen, and try their books.
“Publishing a first novel is a landmark, also life-changing event. We knock ourselves out to host as many of them as we can regardless of expense. It matters who the next generation of writers you want to read will be. And if we don’t do our part and you don’t do yours, a first novel can become a last novel. Ouch.
“You only get one shot at meeting a debut author and buying a debut novel. Bragging rights along with books to devour. Long-time customers can look back to this moment with Child, Connelly, Winslow, Ide, Petrie, Krueger, Hamilton… Lisa See. So many more.”
*****
Here’s the summary of John McMahon’s The Good Detective.
“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 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.
*****
If you didn’t make it the other night, you can still watch John McMahon in conversation with William Kent Krueger.