Thomas Martin, the narrator of this short, chilling novel, tells the reader early on that “I spun stories, made things like death seem clean and manageable --- attractive, even.”

Thomas is an ad man, but as he keeps reminding us, he’s more than the sum of his unremarkable parts --- New York advertising professional, father, son, husband, brother. He’s also a good man, he insists, perhaps too vehemently. “All I ever wanted was to do everything the right way,” he says towards the end of A GOOD MAN.

"A GOOD MAN is an absorbing story that keeps the reader involved in its characters well beyond the last page."

Beginning in the middle of his story, Thomas sets the scene, giving us a sense of his apparently idyllic life with “my girls,” his wife and daughter, in a large house on Long Island. Then he fills in his early years, which were anything but idyllic: His father was a monster, his older sister died tragically, and his younger sisters remained in the house where they are still recluses. How did he escape --- or has he?

Debut novelist Ani Katz plants portents throughout the book until the shocking denouement. She uses opera stories to signal plot twists, as Thomas is a devotee who listens to The Met broadcasts and identifies closely with Tannhäuser, a Wagnerian tragic hero. Her writing is good enough to make the reader believe, or want to believe, that the portents --- unsettling conversations, unexpected outbursts and underreported exchanges --- add up to the horror that befalls this family. Perhaps, but not quite.

Still, A GOOD MAN is an absorbing story that keeps the reader involved in its characters well beyond the last page.