Author(s): Thomas McMullan

Novel | England | Dystopia, Science Fiction and Fantasy | Read our reviews!

WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE'

A Scarlet Letter for our times' MARGARET ATWOOD

'An extraordinary and disquieting work of imagination, and as original as any novel I've read in recent memory' ROB DOYLE

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?

Review: A Scarlet Letter for our times ... Zamyatin's We meets Lord of the Flies meets de Tocqueville meets cancel culture meets spite and malice meets Jesus. Should words be power? Justice or mercy? What price rage? -- MARGARET ATWOOD
Vividly nasty, recalling the smack-in-the-face technique of early Ian McEwan, and so accomplished that it's easy to forget this is a debut ... McMullan has a sureness with violence that puts him in the company of Sarah Moss and Benjamin Myers... Viciously captivating: frightening to be around, impossible to put aside - a bit like other humans, in fact * Guardian *
This is a visceral and disquieting debut novel about the power of words, and should be read by anyone who uses the internet * New Statesman *
McMullan makes highly effective use of the rugged landscape, full of unease and portents, in his creepily unsettling debut, a timely tale about the dangers of toxic rhetoric and mob rule * Daily Mail *
A brilliantly unsettling parable about how we police our societies through violence, language and shame * independent.co.uk *
Innovative and timeless * Irish Times *
An extraordinary and disquieting work of imagination, and as original as any novel I've read in recent memory ... The Last Good Man makes visible the dark matter of our troubled zeitgeist, and the cruelty that animates moral community -- ROB DOYLE
A clean, crackling novel ... McMullan updates Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to today's sanctimonious climate ... An arresting debut about medieval justice that has plenty to say about the dangers of moral puritanism * Metro *
An earthy, gripping piece ... A serious and seriously good book * NB Magazine *
McMullan's skill truly lies in his prose...a startling and evocative tale * Set the Tape *
An unsettling and startling work of literary imagination ... A shocking but compulsive read * ON Magazine *
Brilliantly eerie * Dystopia Junkie *
Eerie and atmospheric * Sunday Post *
An essential and commanding slice of folk horror - a wholly successful exercise in world-building that straddles an uncomfortable line between reality and fantasy * Lunate *

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STELLA'S REVIEW:
Be careful what you wish for. In The Last Good Man, Thomas McMullan delves into the slippery world of morality and judgement. We meet Duncan Peck on the road from a devastated and chaotic city. He’s travelling across land, it’s dark and bleak and a wrong step will mean a suffocating drowning in the bog. 'Watch your step' could be the catch cry for this dystopian debut. A dark mass rises from the bog nearby only to be quickly surrounded by a plastic-rain-coated group. A rescue team? Unlikely, with their metal pipes and mob mentality. Yet they draw the miserable man from the bog and head back to a village. Duncan Peck stays mum. There’s a familiar voice — the man he is looking for. Finding him is about to change his life. This last good man. If there was ever such a thing. Duncan arrives in the village and catches up with his brother-in-arms, James Hale. There are recriminations, but also joy at being in each other’s company again. Their past both binds and hangs over them. Each is edgy about looking back, especially Hale who has found his place in this community. A small community of structure, rules (seemingly ‘fair’) and justice as dispensed by all — a true community reckoning as needs demand. How did they get to this order from a world of ecological and economic chaos? The Wall. There it is — visible on the horizon from a great distance, looming over the community in size and psychology. Anyone can write on the wall. If a wrong has been done it will be announced. A mention or two may not warrant any punishment, aside from a wooden piece of furniture attached to a back for a few days. Various men and women go about their daily chores with a lamp, chair or table tied to their backs. Hale tells Duncan Peck early in the piece he better sort out his ropes — make sure he has a good one to ease the troublesomeness of such an imposition. Yet, get your name on the wall in repetition and for more troubling matters, then life might not be so easy, or even possible at all. Accusations have to be acted on — it’s natural justice. Gossip and petty jealousies raise their ugly heads. This is the twitter-sphere writ large in analogue. Technology is a thing of the distant past and, while life is simple, it’s definitely not without complexities and intricate dancing if you want to keep your name from the wall and the attention of the mob that will hunt you down when you make a run for it. You can know many secrets and truths but you would be foolish to voice those in this judgemental village. Thomas McMullan brings us a dark unsettling time, with echoes of Riddley Walker (without the language breakdown) and early Ian McEwan, where human behaviour is both attractive and frightening. Everybody wants to be loved. Everybody wants to be good, but somehow no one can quite pull it off without being bogged down in a sticky mire. Desire and survival are bedfellows Duncan Peck can not ignore if he wants to keep his head. 

Author Biography: Thomas McMullan is a writer, critic and journalist whose work has appeared in publications including the Guardian, Observer, Times Literary Supplement, Frieze and BBC News, and has been published in 3:AM Magazine, Lighthouse and Best British Short Stories. He has worked with visual artists, game studios and theatre companies in London, Amsterdam, Beijing and Los Angeles. He lives in London.