The Last Good Man

by Thomas McMullan

Duncan Peck has travelled alone to Dartmoor in search of his cousin. He has come from the city, where the fires are always burning.

In his cousin’s village, Peck finds a place with tea rooms and barley fields, a church and a schoolhouse. Out here, the people live an honest life – and if there’s any trouble, they have a way to settle it. They sit in the shadow of a vast wall, inscribed with strange messages. Anyone can write on the wall, anonymously, about their neighbours, about any wrongdoing that might hurt the community. Then comes the reckoning.

The stranger from the city causes a stir. He has not been there long before the village wakes up to the most unspeakable accusation; sentences daubed on the wall that will detonate the darkest of secrets.

A troubling, uncanny book about fear and atonement, responsibility and justice, and the violence of writing in public spaces, The Last Good Man dares to ask: what hope can we place in words once extinction is in the air?

Genres: Dystopia, Fiction, Horror, Fantasy

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 2020

Reviews

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

In brief - Unsettling, good use of language, strange

In full
In a post apocalyptic world Duncan Peck walks from the city to Dartmoor to find his cousin. He finds him in an apparently ideal village still with a tea room, church and school house. There is also a large wall. Anyone can write on this wall and express their feelings about fellow residents as well as post announcements and the like. Any accusations of wrong doing may have real consequences and Peck's cousin is the person who deals with it. This still appears better than the city to Peck but is he right?

So starts one of the more unusual books I've read this year. The book follows Peck's time in the village which looks stranger as time goes by - it is an odd place in an odd world. This isolated community is as interesting as it is atmospheric. For me - and I am a lover of it - Dartmoor is a good setting and well caught by the writing. The characters come over well enough and particularly Peck.

I've read a few post apocalyptic books over the years. Some have been excellent, some rather silly and some ok. This one defies those categories quite happily! I found this both unsettling and hard to put down. Indeed as it went on it became even more like that. This is a dark story and not just because of the setting. I kept wanting to look behind the façade to see who - if anyone - was pulling the strings. Or indeed to see if there were any strings or is this simply human nature? For some reason "Lord of the Flies" seems to come to mind rather than, for example, "The Road".

I have to confess I am not sure I understood everything that happened. I am not really sure how much I enjoyed it. However I am certainly glad I read this.

Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

At some unknown time presumably in the future, and after escaping a burning city and undertaking an arduous journey to his cousin’s family in Devon, Duncan Peck is pleasantly surprised to discover a degree of civilisation in the small Dartmoor village, and decides to settle. The people are friendly, there is a school and a tea-room, and they have some system of law and order. He soon discovers though some more disturbing elements, such as the wall on the edge of town upon which inhabitants can write their disgust at any other villager who has wronged or annoyed them (a more direct form of Facebook perhaps), and the public punishments that are dealt out.
This is certainly one of the most unusual books I have read for some time, a strange place in a strange world; a dystopian one, but it could be a regression to medieval. It’s better appreciated having finished it such is the sense of discomfort while reading. There’s an element of not knowing the full story also, that in retrospect, works really well - what is the Tragedy? what has happened in the recent past? (for example).
To write in such a potentially disturbing manner about family life swept away in bouts of violence and cruelty needs careful handling, and McMullan handles it deftly and with enormous creativity.
It’s misleading and unfair to compare it to The Road - in many ways it defies comparison, but if pushed I’d go for We Have Always Lived In The Castle, or as a friend write in his review, Jim Crace.

[Rob Twinem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duncan Peck is visiting his childhood friend James Hale, in a small village, a rural retreat. At the outskirts of the village there is positioned, rather mysteriously, a large wall. It would appear the wall is used as a means for the villagers to communicate between themselves or more particularly to accuse fellow citizens of wrongdoing and ultimately decide and carry out appropriate punishment. A sudden dark unexpected incident results in accusations being directed towards Peck who quickly understands that departure may be the most attractive option.

As well as being a good novel The Last good man reminded me of the writing style of Bernard Taylor. There are elements of horror and a very uneasy at times frightening storyline. I thought the closing chapters were very neatly structured and the fate of Duncan Peck was not quite what I expected and a great credit to the author’s undoubted writing ability. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written.

[Neale · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is published in the March edition of goodreading magazine under my real name.

[Tracey Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review also published on California-reading.com

I am an absolute sucker for unsettling tales set in weird little pockets of England, as I am from a very odd bit of northern England. I particularly enjoy stories of weird rituals, or backwards societies, similar to The Wicker Man, or Midsommar. Stories that are slightly unnerving, because they are dangerously on the cusp of being believable.

When I saw a glowing review of The Last Good Man, in The Guardian, I had to grab a copy. The book is unfortunately not released in the US yet, but good old reliable Blackwell’s had my back. Note – for any US readers wanting to get hold of UK-only releases, Blackwells is fantastic.

The civilized world is on the brink of collapse, and so Duncan Peck leaves his nightmarish city life to track down his cousin, James, who has fled to a quieter part of the country. However, when Duncan first glimpses his cousin, he’s part of a mob, chasing a man down, and then throwing said man into a wheelbarrow. A slightly over-exuberant bachelor party? No, this is vigilante justice at its most baffling.

It turns out that James is judge, jury, and executioner of a town where people literally write their grievances on a wall. Barely any dissatisfaction is vocalized; they just grab their paint and daub their accusations, founded or unfounded, on a giant wall in the dead of night. However, there is very little in the way of scrutiny, and people are punished in bizarre ways regardless of evidence.

Unbelievably, this flawless system causes a few problems! And as the grotty pasts of our characters materialize, this “utopian” society proves to be anything but paradise.

I really enjoyed The Last Good Man. The story was compelling, the characters flawed and engaging. But even though there are some truly horrific things in this book, the things left unsaid are the things that will stay with me. The true motivations of some characters are hinted at, but never truly revealed.

And of course, I can’t ignore the wider message of the book, of how anonymous, caluous accusations can ruin lives. When I described the concept of the wall to my husband, he said: “So it’s like Facebook, then?” In the age of “canceling”, unfounded accusations born of resentment can have grave consequences. We only have to look at the death of UK TV personality Caroline Flack as one recent, memorable example. Throw in the narrator’s hints at societal collapse (the extent of which is never made crystal clear), and this book is chillingly prescient.

The Last Good Man is a literary horror novel, but with absolutely no supernatural elements. This is real human horror, arguably the most terrifying. I hope this gets a wider release, and I would absolutely welcome a TV adaptation.

[G P Hart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this has received good reviews so I am probably alone. However, I have to say that I found this a rather silly book. Like most dystopian novels it contains some large plot holes, but that's not so important. Rather more damaging is the fact that there is no reason for the reader to believe in, or care about, any of the characters. These unfortunates live in a rural community with a very unwholesome judicial code, some weird punishments (think furniture tied to your back) and a number of odd customs. They carry on, apparently happily, while people are tortured or die amongst them. Then the story is over.

The last straw for me was the language moving this story along. Mostly readable and appropriate until, regularly throughout, the author drops in a little literary bomb. Phrases like "Grief has tied strings to his skeleton", "The ceiling inhales." and "the sun cracked open in a plume of smoke" do not help anybody.

You might like this book. It has violence, manhunts, a bit of sex (don't think the author really trusted himself in this department) and some moralising. But it's not great.

[Yellowoasis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. The premise is quite simple: in some not too future time, when cities are in decline, a man travels to a rural location to seek his cousin. His cousin is now the local ‘big shot’ in the village. Law and order are maintained by a form of direct democracy – citizens paint their accusations and comments about others on a massive wall, whose purpose is lost to history, and then justice is meted out. Lesser crimes are punished with ‘burdening’ – where people have a large item of furniture (dining table, chest of drawers) roped to their backs for a specified amount of time. More serious crimes are met with a few days in the stocks. People who try and escape are hunted down and subjected to public violence – a smashed leg for example. I’m not sure what was most shocking – the burdening, or the more violent punishments. Our protagonist is initially horrified, but is soon seduced by the idea of becoming the village leader himself, convinced he could make a better, more humane job of being the law. A disturbing and brilliant view of a possible future.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘The Last Good Man’ is a bit of wild ride. I wasn’t 100% certain about what exactly was happening at times but I think that’s pretty much the intended effect. The novel reads like a dystopian version of magical realism and the effect is always slightly destabilising and a little confusing. If I had to explain this novel to someone I would describe it as Max Porter meets Chuck Wendig and Garth Ennis (creator of the Preacher comic book series). I am not sure that I understood this novel and what it was trying to achieve, even after reading it.

With thanks to the publisher for the free digital review copy in exchange for my honest review.

[KLSH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping from start to finish. It creates a believable yet horrific dystopian world. The claustrophobia of the village is intense. I loved the moments of tenderness and soft descriptions of nature amidst the sinister behaviours. The way it flips village life is incredible. I think it would transfer well to TV or film - hope to see it on screen at some point!

[Anson Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stand out book of 2020 for me. One of the best satires on the unjust and unfairly earned power of social media to destroy people’s lives that I’ve ever read. Particularly impressive seeing as it’s set in a world with no electricity so no internet. A parable for the Trump age we are hopefully now finally putting behind us.

[Tom Mooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This peculiar novel marks the debut of a promising new voice.

A dystopia set in the English countryside, which bears comparison with classic sf novels like John Christopher's Death of Grass and, in parts, with John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids.

Escaping the unnamed city, which is always burning, Duncan Peck arrives at a small settlement on Dartmoor. His cousin, James Hale, is the law in this strange community, a archetypal English village in many ways, with its butcher shop, tearoom and cottages.

But looming over the place is a huge wall upon which are scrawled announcements, messages and, critically, the local gossip. It is this gossip which forms the basis of justice in the community - it is Hale's job to take note of it and dish out punishments as he sees fit. This could be a burden to carry - a table or chair tied to your back, a week in the stocks being pelted with shit and rotten fruit - or it could be an iron bar to the shin.

Peck isn't used to any of this, either the civilised nature of daily life, nor the medieval forms of justice his cousin dishes out. And he is ready to stir things up.

It's a tantalising premise which is mostly well handled. But there's a lot going on and I feel it could have been stripped back a little. There's so much to get through that McMullan spends more time than he needs telling rather than showing. It also suffers a little from the publisher's comparison of the novel with McCarthy's The Road on the cover - a poisoned chalice, if ever there was one. A more accurate comparison might be Jim Crace, who writes about both medieval and dystopian communities with such skill.

A decent read but not a real stand out.

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

The action in The Last Good Man takes place in a rural dystopian setting, with no further explanation provided. The community gripes are painted anonymously on ‘The Wall’ by the offended, and once they have been, petty or otherwise, action must be taken to punish the offenders.
This is a straightforward morality tale for those who like to post their grievances on social media. In this reduced village there is no time for niceties such as the difference between how something is and how something seems, and ambition and pride feature strongly when there is little else to aim for.
The last Good Man reminded me of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, quiet and simple but horrifying in its concept.
With thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

[L.E. Fitzpatrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quaint English village in an apocalyptic world is initially enchanting and unnerving but ultimately falls flat. The Last Good Man promises a thought provoking, unsettling look at human nature but delivers benign characters and story arch that left me wondering what the point was. Duncan Peck probably felt the same.

[Vaughn Highfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unsettling read that builds slowly but contains many unexpected, explosive moments. I found it a fantastic read that was un-putdownable – ploughing through its 300-odd pages in just a couple of sittings.

[Paul Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

My. last good read

A well written book with a distinct atmosphere that continues throughout. There are themes within the book that everybody should take heed of. I really enjoyed this story.

[Selina Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting but very odd narrative style, lots of swearing too! Glad it was this length cos much longer might have proved "too much". Found the ending very fitting.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

An earthy and compelling debut novel from this playwright turned prose author. Duncan Peck leaves the horrid city for the village where his cousin (actually, a kid fostered as his brother) is in charge of the justice – breaking limbs of those who flee malicious words overnight, putting people in the stocks, or, er, tying large bits of furniture to their backs. Those malicious words get posted overnight on a Wall, a huge bit of free-standing brickwork alongside the village edge, and not, as you might assume from the obvious allegory, f*c*book. This might have been tauter – it loses a little when it's not in the rarefied village, and when we can see the words on the Wall encroach on the lives of those in charge – but it is still a very good read. The look at how justice might work in the light of anonymous libelling, whatever the strange circumstances of this peculiar village, will feel quite timeless, and gallingly universal – the way the villagers are expected to check up on others and leave a nasty kind of feedback amongst the parish notices could be thought of as a fantasy stage away from the Stasi, for one. I think Jim Crace would have been proud – a strong four stars.

[Tim Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're in some near-future dystopia, where cities have become burning places of danger and our protagonist Peck has arrived, on the invitation of his adoptive cousin Hale, at  the seeming sanctuary of an idyllic village on the edge of Dartmoor. The villagers avail themselves of a large wall, upon which they post messages: "Free kittens available to good homes". "Bell-ringing classes begin next Tuesday". "GEOFF SHARPE DOESN'T CUT THE MEAT GOOD. I HOPE GEOFF SHARPE DIES". That kind of thing. Two or more accusations and Something Has To Be Done. Which generally means being put in the stocks, having large pieces of furniture tied to you or just a kneecapping. Preferably after a satisfying hunt across the moors. All in the interests of good community relations, of course.
The fairly obvious ways that the wall is an allegory for social media (Twitter in particular) pile-ons doesn't detract from the originality of the novel. Highly recommended.

[Caroline Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas McMullan has written a very dark, dystopian fantasy, reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with touches of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter. Daniel Peck has escaped from the city, where the fires are always burning and come at his adoptive cousin's invitation, to join him in his village on Dartmoor, to live a better life. When Daniel arrives it doesn't take him long to find that he has walked into a community which police's itself on gossip and violence.

Things go wrong fairly soon after his arrival, people are seriously injured on the word of the mob, people who try to escape are hunted down and brought back, the stocks are in use despite weather conditions and then someone gets killed! I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook, brilliantly narrated by Paul Tyreman and I did enjoy the book. However it is dark so don't expect a bundle of laughs!

[Peter Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual book which at times is unsettling and even disturbing.

Set on Dartmoor at (presumably) some point in the future society is breaking down, animals have died and resources are running down. Set against this dystopian background Peck lives the city to join his cousin (actually old friend not blood) Hale in a village on Dartmoor.

The village is dominated by a large wall where the villagers post messages and this leads to a tale of crime and punishment.

There may also me a message here for social media...

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fable of a novel which reads like a mash-up of The Lottery, The Handmaid's Tale, the recent Pew, and The Crucible. Because this has so many clear precedents, it feels predictable in its trajectory and I can't say I was surprised by anything which takes away all narrative tension. It feels like a short story stretched inordinately. Not my favourite from McMullan.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.

[Iain Snelling · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another post apocalypse novel. The innovative feature which is necessary is a wall on which anyone can write an accusation which is taken seriously, with some punishment meted out. This satire on social media would sustain a short story, but isn’t developed enough in its implications for the novel whose plot goes nowhere convincingly, with wooden characters. I couldn’t work out the significance of the pieces of furniture tied to the accused.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

A troubling book about a future in which small communities escape a failing urban environment to establish more self-sufficient lives in which law and order is exercised according to the majority. Words can expose the guilty and evidence is not required. Where does truth and goodness rest in such a society? Powerful writing that makes implicit comparison with the direction our own society is heading in the era of social media and cancel culture.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an intriguing book - it’s gripping, eye-opening, and thought-provoking… but I’m not sure I could say that I enjoyed it. You might not either, unless you derive enjoyment from the unsettling and downright disturbing, but this nevertheless seems like an important book for our times.

The story begins in a near-future where some sort of vague ecological collapse has taken place and where the remaining civilisation appears to be clinging on by tinned food and sheer luck. We join Duncan as he runs from a life of fear and hiding in a violent city to join his cousin in a remote village in Dartmoor, where all appears at first glance to be idyllic. There is fresh food, a community who *watch over* each other, and “so much potential”, a promise of a new life. Looming over the village is an enormous wall, of mysterious origin and design, that has been coopted by the villagers as a canvas for airing matters of importance to the community, and as a de facto justice system. Whatever is written on the wall is taken as truth and acted upon accordingly.

This allegory twists the worst of Twitter plus cancel culture into an apocalyptic nightmare and asks us the meaning and power of words in a society ruled by the mob. The setting in deepest darkest Dartmoor adds to the sense of isolation facing Duncan as he increasingly forced to chose between the law of the Wall and what he knows must be right. I will confess that - as some of the other readers have alluded to - some elements of the story were left mysteriously unexplained. The psychologies and personalities of the villagers were richly imagined - but the ‘world-building’ of this post-collapse outpost of surviving humanity left me with many logistical questions that kinda bugged me throughout the book. However, that aside, this book is worth a read if only for its deep creepiness, and for the questions it will force you to ponder on how mob rule may insidiously pull at us even today.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A Scarlet Letter for our times" - Marget Atwood is a quote splashed across the cover.

Cover quotes are a bugbear of mine, all too often they are misleading or downright deceitful but in this case they are bang on the money with its portrayal of an isolated oppressive community.

The writing is quite literally on the wall when the protagonist Peck stummbles into this haven of mob justice where all the dark herd mentality of social media is played out with brutal effect.

The story is atmospheric with a pinch of folk horror there is the macguffin of some sort of societal collapse to keep the community without any viable viable alternative but its barely touched upon which is fair enough given the strength of the writing in this distopia.

Great book i would recommend

[David Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Last Good Man" by Thomas McMullan offers a chilling glimpse into a small English village where mob justice, gossip, and the desire for social approval shape everyday life, providing a thought-provoking look at humanity's darker side.

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept, but it goes absolutely nowhere with it and is ultimately unsatisfying.

[Philippa Smears · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put it down! This amazing novel is revelatory-totally accessible, gripping, and so meaningful as to leave the reader pondering its depths several days later
I hope this gets picked up by Netflix and turned into a series/film; it would be gripping!

[Georgi (Dystopiandamsel) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted this to be so much more than it was, I wanted strange cults, unnerving customs, I wanted extreme fake news and unwavering sheep mentality.
To me it was far too ambiguous, hardly any questions answered which I found more infuriating than inquisitive. The characters were unlikely and therefore I wasn't really connected with any of them. The plot went all over the place, fast and slow and padded out here and there with unnecessary info.

[Sue Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a bit boring actually with a few promising themes that went nowhere. Persisted because it was my bookclub read.

My summary would be:
An idea wandering in a dystopian landscape looking for a novel. 2.5 stars.