John McMahon: Award Winning Novelist

This interview was conducted after John McMahon’s debut novel. Three more novels have been published since his debut novel, with a fourth due out in 2026.

Debut Novelist to Rising Star

John McMahon has a story to tell and I could not be more pleased that he allowed me an interview following the March 19, 2019, release of his debut novel The Good Detective.

It was his first published work, and has been followed up with several novels of equal intensity. Mr. McMahon captures all the elements necessary for a good crime mystery set in the south.

John McMahon is the executive creative ad director at Art Machine, based in Hollywood, CA. He won a gold Clio award for his work on a Fiat 500X ad and wrote an Alfa Romeo ad shown during the Super Bowl.

Interview with John McMahon

Background and Influences

Mr. McMahon, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Before I ask any questions, I must tell you, as a southerner and a lover of mystery and crime suspense, The Good Detective is as good as it gets.

So, let’s get started.  Are you a southerner by birth? Where did you grow up? Please share a little of your early years with us.

I’m one of those people who grew up all over. In fact, a lot of people thought my family was in the military because we moved so much. But we weren’t.

I was born in the Bronx but was only there for a year. Then we moved to an idyllic town called Norton Hill in the Catskills that no one’s ever heard of. That was 6 years. Then to Yuma, Arizona for 5. Then we arrived in southern California when I was 13. My family settled there, and I went to UCLA. But I wasn’t happy post-college, so I got a 2^nd BA from The University of Arizona in Creative Writing. So effectively, I moved back to the desert for a couple years, which was really formative in terms of my writing. Plus Tucson is a great creative community.

I am the youngest of 4 kids, and my mom is still around, but my Dad has passed. My brothers and sisters all live in Southern California, and my wife and I live in the LA area. We have two kids, a rescue dog named Tessie and a rescue cat named Midnight.

I still work full time in advertising, and writing is a second job on the weekends and evenings. In that capacity, I started traveling to Georgia in my late 20s – and then again recently. And I fell in love with the area each time.

When did you know you wanted to be an author or writer?

As a kid, I was always writing. It wasn’t always creative writing. Some times it was a battle plan or a manifesto.

But – I didn’t grow up in a family where the arts were talked about. They were not avoided. We just didn’t really know people who had creative jobs. So I thought I might be interested in medicine at first. Or finance. These were the two occupations of my parents, so I was really just modeling them because I had parents who were great role models.

Do you have favorite authors that may have influenced your writing?

As a kid, my favorite authors were Hemingway and Salinger.

As an adult, James Lee Burke had a massive impact on my writing. His work is much thicker than mine. I tend to be sparer, but when I read Burke, I want all those words. I feel like I’m in a New Orleans courtyard with him, and that’s what I love.

Michael Connelly is a master at plotting, so I look for inspiration on plot organization from him. The best setups and payoffs. But there are so many more good writers, and I’m always discovering new ones.

Cormack McCarthy and James Elroy are legends at dialogue that I love.

I am intrigued that you are a creative advertising executive. James Hayman, another of my favorite authors also has a background in advertising. He told me working at the ad agency taught him to tell a story in 60 seconds and that contributes to his “tight writing.” Does your experience in advertising influence your writing style?

I think the biggest influence I get from advertising is actually about collaboration and its effects on the editing process. At the agency, we get used to working on top of each other, and it makes the process of editing easier if you don’t feel a possessiveness of the work.

In fact, at the agency, once everyone presents the work, we have a moment where we say “this work now all belongs to the state” vs. any one writer or designer.

So my editor at Putnam can write a line in, and I look at it as if I wrote it. And I expect he looks at everything as if it’s owned by Putnam (which it is). So overall it’s great if there’s less possessiveness and no whining about it. It’s gotta work, and collaboration with the right team always makes it better. Always.

There is more of this interview to come, but I have to admit I needed to take a breather at this point. Within a few sentences, John McMahon had shared so much. I have gone back to my bookshelves and pulled out my copies of some of Hemingway’s books and, of course, Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey. I wanted to hug these works, smell the paper, and spend a few moments remembering how these writers had impacted my early life.

As a James Lee Burke fan, I can definitely see his influence on Mr. McMahon. He mentioned he felt as if he were in a New Orleans courtyard when he read Burke. McMahon’s first novel made me feel southern humidity. I could smell honeysuckle. In fact, while reading The Good Detective, I walked outside to make sure the honeysuckle was not in bloom. Yes, there is an art form in creating that kind of response that few authors can elicit.

I made a cup of hot tea and flipped pages of my Michael Connelly collection. I’m always ready to revisit Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch. I wanted to slap myself! Connelly is a master of plot organization. I suppose I had never looked beyond the story. But, underneath all the flow and action, the plots are so well organized I had never noticed from a writer’s point of view.

Dialogue! Wow! What can I say? I must now go back and re-read McCarthy and Elroy. I am sure there are lessons to be learned if only I can read from an author’s perspective.

As I once again read over John McMahon’s comments about the editing process, I realized this was not just an interview. He was offering a clinic on successful writing.

Time to move on to the characters and their stories…

John McMahon’s Characters and Their Stories

Now that we know a little about the man, it is time to get specific. And, during the interview I learn, much to my satisfaction, there are more P.T Marsh and Remy Morgan books in the writing.

Now, let’s talk about The Good Detective, your debut novel. I’m going to ask the chicken and the egg question. Which came first, P.T. Marsh or the story?

P.T. came first. He was a character in a different book that I killed years ago. In that, I got to know his personality pretty well. I stopped writing that, and it sat in the drawer. When I rescued him from the drawer, I left that story behind, where it belonged, because it wasn’t good enough. But P.T. deserved a second chance.

I read that Lake Lanier (Georgia) is one of your favorite places. Did you do any research locally for the novel? Or, how did the time you spent there contribute to the story?

Both. I do a lot of research. But nothing beats being there. So yes – I have stayed on Lake Lanier several times. I love it actually. If anyone reading the interview has an empty summer home there, please let me know. 😊 Recently I stayed at Carter’s Lake too, which is up by Ellijay, because I felt it was closer, geographically, to the fictitious Mason Falls.

Did you plan to have Detective P.T. Marsh and his partner, Remy Morgan, as your lead characters? Or, did Remy’s role grow as you wrote?

I always planned to have PT and Remy as the leads together.

P.T. is a character that’s driven by justice. But he is also someone who’s constantly questioning – do I have the right to be here? To be alive – when the ones I care about most – are all gone? 

In many ways, my favorite character in the book is Remy Morgan. In the 2^nd book, out in Spring of 2020, Remy takes a much bigger role, and I see that in coming books.

What I love about her is she has an unwavering sense of right and wrong and fierce loyalty to P.T. So in some ways, she’s version 2.0 of P.T. She’s made detective at an even younger age than him—she’s got a lot to learn, but she’s not scared of being in what is largely a man’s industry.

The setting in fictitious Mason Falls, Georgia, could be any small town in Georgia. What made you set the story in rural Georgia?

Georgia is a place I started going for business in my late 20s. I stopped traveling there for some time, then began again.  

Not to give any spoilers, but there is a backstory that goes back to the time of the Civil War, so once I knew that, I knew The Good Detective had to be set in the South. And to me, Georgia is an area I fell in love with when I started traveling there, so it felt like the perfect fit.

You developed a strong narrative around racism in the south. As a reader, I was impressed with the way you handled it throughout the novel. Was there a specific reason you chose to put P.T. Marsh into a mixed marriage? Or, a specific reason Remy Morgan, Marsh’s young partner, is black?

Race and justice are the biggest issues of our day. And this is popular fiction, so I don’t think it’s our place to solve that. But – they are the big issues – so I think writers have to strive to do their part to make statements, even if in fiction, on those issues. 

In terms of P.T.’s past and mixed marriage, it was my goal to have him think he has the ability to know another race, because of this experience, but at the same time, he has no ability or right to know. Which makes him a grey character. I always love characters that live in those in-between spaces – half water, half land. That was my goal.

In terms of Remy, I just wanted her to have a different perspective than P.T.

I have read one review of The Good Detective that seemed to indicate you took on too much with the racial diversity vs. the racism in the south. As one who grew up in the south and now lives in Chattanooga, TN, I think you found the perfect balance. We live with the contradiction every day. You depicted it perfectly, in my opinion.

Back to Sergeant P.T. Marsh. He is flawed, as flawed as a lead character can get and still keep the readers cheering him on. His flaws set up the novel. When you first conceived the novel, was that your intent?

There are moments in life where we make these small decisions that can have large ramifications.

P.T. had made some mistakes that are accidental and based on his need to control things at his work and be in charge. And then things got away from him. To me – that’s something a lot of people can relate to, and they’re integral to how he’s flawed.

I don’t want to give away too much so let me move on to my main points of interest.

How did you come up with the storyline? Did you get it from headlines or strictly from your creative imagination?

No, I did not come up with the story from any headline or news story. I guess at first I was just drawn to this idea of a character who’s lost everything in his life. And I was asking myself – what’s the lesson he takes away from this personal tragedy?  What does he do next?

For P. T. Marsh– the lesson he walks away with is that now he’s free to do whatever he needs to – to enforce justice. He doesn’t have to worry about his family. And it puts him in this spot where he’s playing judge and jury and maybe executioner. When he wakes up on page 5 of the book – and people are dead and he’s been drinking – he’s face to face with the reality that this theory of his about justice is probably wrong.

We now know a little about John McMahon’s influences and his duo of leading characters, P.T. Marsh and Remy Morgan. It’s time to ask the “how do you….” questions.

The P.T. Marsh Series

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Writing Process to Published Author

The interview with John McMahon continues with the “technical” questions, the ones writers and wannabe writers want to ask.

When you sat down to write The Good Detective, did you know the outcome, or did the characters drive the story?

For this book, it was very organic and not outlined and the characters (and their traits/actions) drove the story. In the next book because it had to be written on a more compressed time deadline –was more outlined. But either way – in my writing experience – you have to tear ½ the book up and re-write. Even if you outline.

You have a full schedule as an executive creative director at Art Machine. Do you set aside time to write each day? Or, do you write when the mood hits?

I write each day, usually in the morning before work. And then after work in evening, I write as well. I have a good wife, which is important. I also take several weekends a month and binge-write and lately take vacations to do it too.

Stephen King talks about his quiet home office. Others talk about writing wherever they sit down with a laptop. Where do you write? Do you have a special place?

I remember reading Stephen King’s book On Writing, and at the time I was writing a lot in the library (which I still do). He made some statement that people who write in libraries will never be successful. It broke my heart. I think you HAVE to have special places –places you can focus – but there’s no right or wrong place. For me, there’s a couple restaurants, the library, and my back-house. It’s a mix, and dependent on what else is going on in my life. The important thing– when you go into the box to write, bring nothing from the rest of your life in with you.

I hear so much about word count from aspiring writers. Some set word goals for each writing session. Some never consider word count until the story has been told. Others set specific times to write, two hours a day, three, whatever. How do you schedule your writing time or do you?

I worry about time to write, but not word count. I am trying to produce 10-15 pages a week. That way, in 6 months, a book can be finished. That gives you 6 months to tear it up and re-write it.

Once you started writing the novel, did you find yourself self-editing from time to time or did you complete the first draft before looking back and editing?

I do both. I self-edit as I go – and I review pages in chunks. I have a weekly writer’s workshop I am in. It’s something I pay for and bring 10 pages to each Saturday. So, I’m getting live feedback each weekend on the new pages.  But – I’m one of those people who love re-writing (after the book is done). To me – it’s where the book gets so much better.

I have heard writers’ block described as when your characters stop talking to you. Have you suffered from writers’ block or did the story keep flowing?

I don’t believe in it. You write, and sometimes it’s just not your best work. To me, writer’s block is a writer not acknowledging that to get to 300 pages, you have to write 1000 pages, and 700 are bad. So I just go ahead and try not to punish myself and write the 700 bad pages.

Who was the first person to read your completed manuscript?

My wife. She always gets read #1, and she focuses mostly on grammar. Nowadays my son reads too, and he’s more focused on consistency, credibility, and suspense.

Was The Good Detective your first go at writing a novel? Or, do you have earlier manuscripts stuck away in a drawer your readers may see in the future?

The book I mentioned before – was put in a drawer. But that drawer was thrown out as it should’ve been. But there was another book – before The Good Detective – and it did not sell. But I firmly believe I will re-write that manuscript, and it may be my best work. I just need to re-think the structure.

Traditional publishing is a hard nut to crack today. Can you share a little about the process of getting an agent, an editor, a publisher?

The book mentioned above – before The Good Detective – it got me an agent, but not a sale.

At one of these book conventions, I participated in a pitch-fest. I met an agent there, and she was ready to work together. But for me, the fit was not right. So I did an about-face that made no sense at the time for an unpublished writer. I respectfully told her ‘no thanks.’

Then I cold-queried 5 dream agents. One of them read the manuscript and loved it. That’s my current agent, Marly. She read the book, loved it, and tried to sell it. When it didn’t sell, she told me ‘if you’re a real writer, go write another book.’ That’s The Good Detective.

John McMahon, thank you for the interview and the clinic on writing and a writer’s life. I have learned a lot from you. Not only have you answered all my questions, but you have also provided suggestions and instructions and hope for all who want to become published authors.

The P.A.R. Series (Patterns and Recognition)

John McMahon’s new series is about an FBI unit that is brought in when no one else can solve the case.