What do you think?
Jackson Donne #2
The Evil That Men Do
Even generations later, you can’t escape…the evil that men do.
Stripped of his private investigator’s license and slumming it as a night security guard at a Jersey storage facility, Jackson Donne thinks he’s finally hit rock bottom. Then the bottom really falls out: The sister he hasn’t seen in years shows up, needing help.
Turns out Donne’s Alzheimer’s-stricken mother has begun hinting at long-buried family secrets from her hospital bed, suggesting a sinister—even murderous—past. Meanwhile, Donne’s relatives are suddenly being greeted by blackmail, car bombs, and bullets to the back of the skull.
All Donne wants is to disappear—preferably into a nice frosty pint glass—but he soon realizes that his only chance at saving his family, and himself, is by solving a mystery more than sixty years old. Now he needs to figure out how a hit man, crooked cops, corrupt politics, a kidnapping, and the city of Bayonne all fit together. He’ll discover that old family secrets still have the power to kill in this razor-sharp PI story that makes classic noir new again.
Stripped of his private investigator’s license and slumming it as a night security guard at a Jersey storage facility, Jackson Donne thinks he’s finally hit rock bottom. Then the bottom really falls out: The sister he hasn’t seen in years shows up, needing help.
Turns out Donne’s Alzheimer’s-stricken mother has begun hinting at long-buried family secrets from her hospital bed, suggesting a sinister—even murderous—past. Meanwhile, Donne’s relatives are suddenly being greeted by blackmail, car bombs, and bullets to the back of the skull.
All Donne wants is to disappear—preferably into a nice frosty pint glass—but he soon realizes that his only chance at saving his family, and himself, is by solving a mystery more than sixty years old. Now he needs to figure out how a hit man, crooked cops, corrupt politics, a kidnapping, and the city of Bayonne all fit together. He’ll discover that old family secrets still have the power to kill in this razor-sharp PI story that makes classic noir new again.
- GenresMystery
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 14, 2008
A great follow up to When One Man Dies. Jackson Donne is a great character.
December 29, 2013
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO is a multi-generational spanning plot of revenge where monetary gain comes second to violence all for the cause of a misguided sense of entitlement.
The present day and 1938 timelines add context and depth to the villainous plight the antagonist takes giving Donne more to work with than the present day injustice inflicted upon his immediate family.
For an out-of-business PI, Jackson Donne manages to maintain the fire and desire to solve crime and help those in need – however, having turned his back on his family sometime ago, this latest ad-hoc and unsanctioned investigation brings him closer to his family in more ways than one.
There’s a lot to digest in THE EVIL THAT MEN DO. The interlocking plot threads and justification for the continuous stream of hard-luck Donne’s family injures takes a little time to come to light. That said, its well worth reading as the mystery unravels.
Personally I found the 1938 timeline the more enjoyable of the two, Joe Tenant comes across as a foundation character for what Donne could eventually replicate (perhaps in later instalments we’ll see Donne rekindle the family urge now that his drinking and coke habit are under control). Author Dave White writes Joe in a way that makes him sympathetic yet still come across as someone not to be intimidated or messed with; the victim and the perpetrator.
In WHEN ONE MAN DIES we saw more of Donne’s life up front and personal, here, we see a broader family drama that adds context and purpose to the Jackson Donne story.
You can also read the review here: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
The present day and 1938 timelines add context and depth to the villainous plight the antagonist takes giving Donne more to work with than the present day injustice inflicted upon his immediate family.
For an out-of-business PI, Jackson Donne manages to maintain the fire and desire to solve crime and help those in need – however, having turned his back on his family sometime ago, this latest ad-hoc and unsanctioned investigation brings him closer to his family in more ways than one.
There’s a lot to digest in THE EVIL THAT MEN DO. The interlocking plot threads and justification for the continuous stream of hard-luck Donne’s family injures takes a little time to come to light. That said, its well worth reading as the mystery unravels.
Personally I found the 1938 timeline the more enjoyable of the two, Joe Tenant comes across as a foundation character for what Donne could eventually replicate (perhaps in later instalments we’ll see Donne rekindle the family urge now that his drinking and coke habit are under control). Author Dave White writes Joe in a way that makes him sympathetic yet still come across as someone not to be intimidated or messed with; the victim and the perpetrator.
In WHEN ONE MAN DIES we saw more of Donne’s life up front and personal, here, we see a broader family drama that adds context and purpose to the Jackson Donne story.
You can also read the review here: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
October 11, 2009
I was surprised to learn that the author of this book is a young middle school English teacher. This book is very well written with flashbacks to a 1938 crime with deep implications for three families in present day New Jersey. Great descriptions & lots of atmosphere, as well as empathetic portrayals of all the characters.
January 23, 2009
This is a great book! I really loved the ending, it's full of surprises. I ran across the book in the library, so I started with the 2nd book in the series. You can bet I'll be searching for the 1st.
I highly recommend to anyone who likes a great mystery.
I highly recommend to anyone who likes a great mystery.
Want to Read
July 2, 2008Of COURSE this is on my to-read book shelf...
Can't wait!!!!
Can't wait!!!!
November 24, 2017
I hadn’t read the previous novel in the series, there may have been some references to it, but not knowing what happened in that book did not detract from this one.
This story has it’s roots in an incident that happened back in 1938. That incident linked three families and gave rise to the violence and vengeance that follows in the present time.
One person believes that, had things happened differently long ago, his life would have been richer, fuller, better. Now he wants what he believes he is owed.
Jackson Donne, once a PI, now without a license and estranged from his family, is content to live his life as a functioning alcoholic. He doesn’t see his family, doesn’t want to (as a result of what happened in book one?) then his sister, Susan, contacts him. Their mother is in a nursing home. She has Alzheimer’s and is going to die soon.
There is some buried family history that is causing her mother some anxiety. Susan wants Jackson to look into it. He refuses. Susan's husband, Franklin, a successful restaurateur, persuades Jackson to help Susan. Then, one of Franklin’s restaurant gets blown up, Jackson's aunt and uncle are murdered, and a Franklin is kidnapped.
Jackson decides he wants to know who is going after his family.
Fast paced, interesting story.
This story has it’s roots in an incident that happened back in 1938. That incident linked three families and gave rise to the violence and vengeance that follows in the present time.
One person believes that, had things happened differently long ago, his life would have been richer, fuller, better. Now he wants what he believes he is owed.
Jackson Donne, once a PI, now without a license and estranged from his family, is content to live his life as a functioning alcoholic. He doesn’t see his family, doesn’t want to (as a result of what happened in book one?) then his sister, Susan, contacts him. Their mother is in a nursing home. She has Alzheimer’s and is going to die soon.
There is some buried family history that is causing her mother some anxiety. Susan wants Jackson to look into it. He refuses. Susan's husband, Franklin, a successful restaurateur, persuades Jackson to help Susan. Then, one of Franklin’s restaurant gets blown up, Jackson's aunt and uncle are murdered, and a Franklin is kidnapped.
Jackson decides he wants to know who is going after his family.
Fast paced, interesting story.
June 16, 2026
Funny story here. I wanted to read the 2nd entry in a series called The Evil that Men Do (book title, not series title) but as it turns out there were 2 books by that name, both #2 in a series, but by different authors. Silly me, I didn’t notice. What I did notice as I kept reading was that book #2 wasn’t anything like what I remembered from book #1. Different main character, in fact, all different characters. So towards the end, I figured out I had the wrong book. This particular book wasn’t anything special; I kept getting confused as to what character was which, and the entire plot was far fetched and just dumb (with a b). So I didn’t miss anything by not reading the first entry in the Jackson Donne series!
October 3, 2025
I thought that “When One Man Dies”, first in the 'Jackson Donne' series, ultimately became almost incestuous in the way the plot folded in upon itself to bring everything home.
It turns out it wasn't accidental, the second instalment “The Evil That Men Do” starts with Jackson's family and never strays from it.
It goes back decades, and generations, to fateful decisions that continue to resonate to the present day.
And, if Jackson's brother-in-law had just told the truth from the start … well, it would have been a much shorter book.
It's a thriller and the emphasis is firmly placed on the action.
The plot didn't really seem likely, though not impossible by any means.
3 Stars.
It turns out it wasn't accidental, the second instalment “The Evil That Men Do” starts with Jackson's family and never strays from it.
It goes back decades, and generations, to fateful decisions that continue to resonate to the present day.
And, if Jackson's brother-in-law had just told the truth from the start … well, it would have been a much shorter book.
It's a thriller and the emphasis is firmly placed on the action.
The plot didn't really seem likely, though not impossible by any means.
3 Stars.
March 24, 2026
A library find.
March 2026.
Suspenseful.
Well written.
March 2026.
Suspenseful.
Well written.
April 26, 2011
Dave White’s second novel starts shortly after his superb debut When One Man Dies. New Jersey P.I. Jackson Donne, recently stripped of his license, finds himself working a dead-end night security job at a storage facility in Piscataway. Donne, estranged from his family for years, gets an unexpected visit from his sister, Susan Carter. She tells him their mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s and claims their grandfather, Joe Tenant, killed a man in 1938. As Donne begins his investigation, the restaurant owned by Susan’s husband is bombed and, as befits a noir novel, the stories eventually intertwine.
As with his previous novel and numerous stories, White’s prose is stripped down and pitch-perfect. It is nearly impossible to find a clunky sentence or a bit of hooptedoodle. The parallel narrative of Joe Tenant in 1938 and Jackson Donne in present day is a nice twist on the genre. You can see the family traits passed down from grandfather to grandson. Tenant is tenacious in tracking down those who promised to do his family harm. Donne, always a tenacious investigator, starts off as resistant to the pull of family only to end up reconciling with his family and becoming stronger for it.
As always, White likes to put Donne through the emotional wringer. Since this novel is written in third person, White also takes the opportunity to put a few of his characters through a physical wringer too. His brutal descriptions of a character’s imprisonment and torture fit nicely with other 21st century novels.
The book is definitely a page-turner. I picked up my copy on its release date and tore through the first 80 some odd pages in my first sitting. Though I will say, this novel didn’t resonate with me as long as Dave’s first. Maybe my anticipation of another Donne novel built things up too much. Maybe the shift from first to third person didn’t get me connected as closely with Donne. I don’t know. This is still a great book and I recommend it to everyone.
As with his previous novel and numerous stories, White’s prose is stripped down and pitch-perfect. It is nearly impossible to find a clunky sentence or a bit of hooptedoodle. The parallel narrative of Joe Tenant in 1938 and Jackson Donne in present day is a nice twist on the genre. You can see the family traits passed down from grandfather to grandson. Tenant is tenacious in tracking down those who promised to do his family harm. Donne, always a tenacious investigator, starts off as resistant to the pull of family only to end up reconciling with his family and becoming stronger for it.
As always, White likes to put Donne through the emotional wringer. Since this novel is written in third person, White also takes the opportunity to put a few of his characters through a physical wringer too. His brutal descriptions of a character’s imprisonment and torture fit nicely with other 21st century novels.
The book is definitely a page-turner. I picked up my copy on its release date and tore through the first 80 some odd pages in my first sitting. Though I will say, this novel didn’t resonate with me as long as Dave’s first. Maybe my anticipation of another Donne novel built things up too much. Maybe the shift from first to third person didn’t get me connected as closely with Donne. I don’t know. This is still a great book and I recommend it to everyone.
August 8, 2008
THE EVIL THAT MEN DO (Unl. Inv-Jackson Donne-New Jersey-1938/Cont) - Poor
White, Dave – 2nd in series
Three Rivers Press, 2008, US Trade paperback – ISBN: 9780307382795
First Sentence: Joe Tenant tied the barge to the dock.
Ex-cop Jackson Donne has now been stripped of his PI license and has estranged himself from his family, including his mother with Alzheimer’s.
His sister, Susan, shows up asking him to visit their mother as she has been rambling about incidents that happened to their family in 1938. Events escalate when her husband is kidnapped for ransom.
I had a hard time getting through this. At the beginning, it is very heavy on product placement—Molson beer, Coach bag, Ryder truck, Verison—which I found distracting.
As it went on, I realized there was no real character development or growth to the characters, so I had no real empathy for any of them. I tried to remind myself that the protagonist was fairly young, but he made an incredibly dumb decision at one point that nearly stopped me.
The plot is over the top. At one point, the protagonist exclaimed he found the villain’s motive insane. So did I and, again, it made me want to stop reading.
The best thing about the book, for me, was the twist at the end—and that I was at the end.
White, Dave – 2nd in series
Three Rivers Press, 2008, US Trade paperback – ISBN: 9780307382795
First Sentence: Joe Tenant tied the barge to the dock.
Ex-cop Jackson Donne has now been stripped of his PI license and has estranged himself from his family, including his mother with Alzheimer’s.
His sister, Susan, shows up asking him to visit their mother as she has been rambling about incidents that happened to their family in 1938. Events escalate when her husband is kidnapped for ransom.
I had a hard time getting through this. At the beginning, it is very heavy on product placement—Molson beer, Coach bag, Ryder truck, Verison—which I found distracting.
As it went on, I realized there was no real character development or growth to the characters, so I had no real empathy for any of them. I tried to remind myself that the protagonist was fairly young, but he made an incredibly dumb decision at one point that nearly stopped me.
The plot is over the top. At one point, the protagonist exclaimed he found the villain’s motive insane. So did I and, again, it made me want to stop reading.
The best thing about the book, for me, was the twist at the end—and that I was at the end.
November 27, 2010
Pretty good follow up to White's first Jackson Donne novel.
In this novel White takes a different tact. The earlier novel, When One Man Dies, was modern take on noir-PI fiction. This novel is much faster paced. It reminded me of a Harlan Coben thriller, not just because it was in suburban NJ. The story moves at a rapid pace, without the same character development of the earlier novel and it also attempts to have a dramatic twist ending. It is okay, but overall I preferred When One Man Dies.
In this novel White takes a different tact. The earlier novel, When One Man Dies, was modern take on noir-PI fiction. This novel is much faster paced. It reminded me of a Harlan Coben thriller, not just because it was in suburban NJ. The story moves at a rapid pace, without the same character development of the earlier novel and it also attempts to have a dramatic twist ending. It is okay, but overall I preferred When One Man Dies.
January 18, 2014
I think I have a literary fiction-crush on Jackson Donne. The character weaves his way through NJ as the author weaves us through his character's trial's and tribulations.
A must read in the thriller genre!
A must read in the thriller genre!
January 17, 2009
if you love learning about serial killers and sexual predators, this book is very good. includes a new ten point system of assessing risk that makes the homicidal triad pale in comparison.
November 1, 2013
Interesting plot, but takes too long to develop. Emotions and motivations seem disingenuous. Dialogue is less interesting and urban accent seems forced.
September 8, 2014
kept my interest, enjoyed it.
November 12, 2014
this one was ok. lots of death but the suspense was good
June 10, 2011
Very enjoyable book.. some people have to let things go. The past is over.
Want to Read
May 30, 2018Jackson Donne
I can't decide if I like this Jackson Donne or not. This is the second one I've read now. I'll probably read the 3rd one, if there is a 3rd. Maybe then I'll make up my mind!
I can't decide if I like this Jackson Donne or not. This is the second one I've read now. I'll probably read the 3rd one, if there is a 3rd. Maybe then I'll make up my mind!
Want to Read
January 29, 2019Synopsis: stripped of his PI licence and slumming as a security guard, Jackson is surprised when an old and violent mystery rears its ugly head.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews