A Good Man
A Novel
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"I sat down to read A Good Man and didn't move until I'd finished...I loved this book." —Caroline Kepnes, author of You
A dark and gripping novel of psychological suspense about a family man driven to unspeakable acts, in the vein of The Perfect Nanny and We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Thomas Martin was a devoted family man who had all the trappings of an enviable life: a beautiful wife and daughter, a well-appointed home on Long Island's north shore, a job at a prestigious Manhattan advertising firm. He was also a devoted son and brother, shielding the women in his orbit from the everyday brutalities of the world.
But what happens when Thomas’s fragile ego is rocked? After committing a horrific deed — that he can never undo — Thomas grapples with his sense of self. Sometimes he casts himself as a victim and, at other times, a monster. All he ever did was try to be a good man, but maybe if he tells his version of the story, he might uncover how and why things unraveled so horribly.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The billy club arrived with the first shipment of Christmas presents that year," says Thomas Martin at the start of Katz's powerful and unsettling debut. Thomas seems to have had it all a loving wife and daughter, an upscale Long Island home, and a successful career in advertising but he has sacrificed everything in a sudden, violent act of desperation. Thomas proceeds to tell his story in an effort to explain and perhaps find absolution. But the account of family life he provides, though enviable on the surface, contains disturbing revelations his failure to protect his sister from sexual abuse, the ambiguous role he had in his father's death, his attitude toward the billy club produces in the reader a sense of foreboding that builds with ever-increasing intensity to the inevitable and brutal climax. Throughout, Thomas insists on believing himself to be a good man, "if deeply flawed." Katz is in full control of mood and pacing. This masterly first novel is sure to attract an audience from outside the mystery/thriller genre.
