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Murder in the Marsh
A missing body. Two new deaths. A man in search of the truth.
1980
Revere Beach, Massachusetts
Detective Eddie Devlin is about to be relieved of his duty by the Revere Police Department.
A year ago, he shot the killer of a woman in the marsh, but the man’s body disappeared from the crime scene. Eddie soon became a suspect, then a person of interest, and finally a casualty of the ongoing investigation.
Shortly after he is let go, two bodies are found in the same place, and suspicions about Eddie’s guilt resurface. Determined to clear his name, the new civilian Devlin conducts his own investigation with the help of his bartender friend, Dana, and his almost girlfriend, Gwen.
The sordid beachfront, the murky marsh, and the rain-soaked season all help to set the stage for this gritty and unsettling mystery, where Devlin battles his relentless demons on the way to uncovering a deeper conspiracy.
1980
Revere Beach, Massachusetts
Detective Eddie Devlin is about to be relieved of his duty by the Revere Police Department.
A year ago, he shot the killer of a woman in the marsh, but the man’s body disappeared from the crime scene. Eddie soon became a suspect, then a person of interest, and finally a casualty of the ongoing investigation.
Shortly after he is let go, two bodies are found in the same place, and suspicions about Eddie’s guilt resurface. Determined to clear his name, the new civilian Devlin conducts his own investigation with the help of his bartender friend, Dana, and his almost girlfriend, Gwen.
The sordid beachfront, the murky marsh, and the rain-soaked season all help to set the stage for this gritty and unsettling mystery, where Devlin battles his relentless demons on the way to uncovering a deeper conspiracy.
197 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 19, 2020
420 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Carey
5 books5 followersKevin Carey is the author of a chapbook of fiction, The Beach People (Red Bird Chapbooks) and three books of poetry from CavanKerry Press, The One Fifteen to Penn Station, Jesus Was a Homeboy which was selected as an Honor Book for the 2017 Paterson Poetry Prize, and the recently released Set in Stone (2020).
Kevin is also a filmmaker and playwright. His latest documentary film, Unburying Malcolm Miller, about a deceased Salem, MA poet, premiered at the Mass Poetry Festival in 2016 and his latest stage play “The Stand or Sal is Dead” a murder mystery comedy, premiered in Newburyport, MA. at The Actor’s Studio in June of 2018.
Murder in the Marsh (Darkstroke Books) his first crime novel was released in October 2020.
Kevin is also a filmmaker and playwright. His latest documentary film, Unburying Malcolm Miller, about a deceased Salem, MA poet, premiered at the Mass Poetry Festival in 2016 and his latest stage play “The Stand or Sal is Dead” a murder mystery comedy, premiered in Newburyport, MA. at The Actor’s Studio in June of 2018.
Murder in the Marsh (Darkstroke Books) his first crime novel was released in October 2020.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 10, 2021
Classic noir with a great creepy setting and compellingly flawed characters. If you like noir tales, you will like this. Well written and good pacing.
October 21, 2020
Excellent story telling.
This story kept me on the edge of my seat. I'm looking forward to more from Mr. Carey.
The suspense was non stop. I wish the book was longer.
This story kept me on the edge of my seat. I'm looking forward to more from Mr. Carey.
The suspense was non stop. I wish the book was longer.
September 10, 2022
Marsh
Another attempt at writing which profanes the sacred and tosses f-bombs around like candy, as if that is supposed to make us like the story. Poor language use is no excuse.
Another attempt at writing which profanes the sacred and tosses f-bombs around like candy, as if that is supposed to make us like the story. Poor language use is no excuse.
September 12, 2022
Awful
This book was awful. It did not flow well at all. A page didn't go by without constant use of profanity. You would think that an author with any decency would not do this.
This book was awful. It did not flow well at all. A page didn't go by without constant use of profanity. You would think that an author with any decency would not do this.
November 7, 2022
Is this author mentally sick?
He portrayed the police as all sick alcohlics. Not a normal person in the book. Not even the priest. Awful!
He portrayed the police as all sick alcohlics. Not a normal person in the book. Not even the priest. Awful!
October 9, 2020
I felt grimy after reading this brilliant book. It has an air of squalor and melancholy about it – there are junkyards, crooked porches and broken neon signs a-plenty. I was grateful when there was a light snowfall to brighten the surroundings. Rumney Marsh is a super creepy place and a depositary for bad things; it’s dark and brutal. Detective Eddie Devlin is haunted by a horrific incident which happened at the marsh; the body he shoots disappears and then, a year later, two more people are killed and dumped in the same place. Eddie is dismissed and his own involvement in these murders is investigated with Lieutenant Preston and Fisher hot on his heels.
Eddie sets out to try and get to the bottom of what happened in and around Oak Island. Gwen, his romantic interest, is a great character and the hopes he has for their relationship show a softer edge to him. A stint of sobriety and the discovery of an AA chip seems to speed the pace up, but throughout the novel, it’s Eddie’s own alcoholism which stifles any progress and it adds to the jangly atmosphere. Halfway through and something cataclysmic happens which really surprised me – I was grateful for Dana and his dog track and clubhouse. Carey is great at inserting brief flashbacks of Eddie’s life – a particularly moving scene is that of Eddie’s father giving his twelve-year-old self a hot dog; I loved seeing Eddie’s fondness for basketball and could almost hear the therapeutic chink of the chain net. I also lapped up Kyle’s history which is intertwined with Eddie’s guilt. Carey cleverly saves Kyle from dehumanisation by peppering the narrative with snippets of his awful childhood – how his dad beat him until he spat blood; his Mum walking out on them.
Ultimately this is a great mystery, stuffed full of strong themes of retribution and guilt with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing right until the very satisfying conclusion.
Eddie sets out to try and get to the bottom of what happened in and around Oak Island. Gwen, his romantic interest, is a great character and the hopes he has for their relationship show a softer edge to him. A stint of sobriety and the discovery of an AA chip seems to speed the pace up, but throughout the novel, it’s Eddie’s own alcoholism which stifles any progress and it adds to the jangly atmosphere. Halfway through and something cataclysmic happens which really surprised me – I was grateful for Dana and his dog track and clubhouse. Carey is great at inserting brief flashbacks of Eddie’s life – a particularly moving scene is that of Eddie’s father giving his twelve-year-old self a hot dog; I loved seeing Eddie’s fondness for basketball and could almost hear the therapeutic chink of the chain net. I also lapped up Kyle’s history which is intertwined with Eddie’s guilt. Carey cleverly saves Kyle from dehumanisation by peppering the narrative with snippets of his awful childhood – how his dad beat him until he spat blood; his Mum walking out on them.
Ultimately this is a great mystery, stuffed full of strong themes of retribution and guilt with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing right until the very satisfying conclusion.
October 13, 2020
Deftly plotted thriller in which two plots circle one another —one involving a troubled cop in the vein of Richard Price or Michael Connelly, one involving “The Beast,” a killer pursued by the cop. One of the most satisfying closings of any police procedural I’ve read.
June 9, 2021
Murder in the Marsh is an exciting book more for what it tries than for what it accomplishes. The dialogue and setting are excellent. There is a consistent anger in the dialogue that doesn't seem forced and gives a sense of the bitterness of street life. Some of the place description is exceptional and does succeed in painting the grittiness of the city and the marsh. In my opinion there was ample room for much more of this description, which would have allowed the reader to even more vividly picture the scenes. What brings it down is some of the confusion of people, place and time that makes the story unnecessarily difficult to follow. It seems to jump unpredictably from one time to another, from one scene to another and from phone call to in person dialogue. There are too many characters to keep straight, and the best characterizations are those of the minor characters. Some of the main characters seem to be meeting plot points rather than acting out the destiny of their innate personalities. The effort I had to spend figuring out the who, when, where and why of the very short scenes seriously undercut the satisfaction that I hoped for from the story. That said, I am looking forward to the next novel from Carey. The style, for all its missteps is an offshoot of hardboiled that is modern and original. The honesty and the empathy for the cast stewing in the low life of Revere provides for compelling drama. If this can all be brought together among a smaller cast, with simplicity, clarity and more of the wonderful atmospheric description that is glimpsed in this one, it will be a step forward in the evolution of the modern American mystery.
October 30, 2020
What a wild romp I didn’t NOT see some of these twists coming. I’m not going to spoil it for you...but this definitely paints quite the picture of Revere 1980. I’ve been to Rumney Marsh. Now I can never go back. Some of these scenes are so delightfully gruesome I feel like someone should make them into paintings to hang in Salem next October.
Also only someone who is from the area could’ve written something so quintessentially on the nose North Shore. Bravo.
Also only someone who is from the area could’ve written something so quintessentially on the nose North Shore. Bravo.
October 2, 2022
I found this copy on my bookshelf. Not sure how I came across this ebook.
It was okay, but did not have the flow I am used to. I could only read it in segments as I found the flow to be a bit too choppy for my tastes. A lot of jumping around from different perspectives. I was intrigued as to how it would end, so I stuck around. Not where I thought it was going.
Have a GoodReads.
It was okay, but did not have the flow I am used to. I could only read it in segments as I found the flow to be a bit too choppy for my tastes. A lot of jumping around from different perspectives. I was intrigued as to how it would end, so I stuck around. Not where I thought it was going.
Have a GoodReads.
December 26, 2022
I read this book all the way through to the end. Why? I really don’t know. None of it made much sense. The characters all ran together. I never really knew just who was who or how they connected to the main storyline, or, even how they were connected to one another. I still don’t know who were the good guys or who were the bad. It’s all just words on a page.
June 8, 2023
!!!!!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!!!
*
*
*
*
A devilishly, intricate weeding of a snake in a guilt ridden garden, and navigating through ghosts that drag us under.
From cover to cover, this book was phenomenal. Eddie Devlin is the biggest beige flag of a character I've ever read, and I mean that in such a good way. He has flaws, his drinking, his sometimes not the greatest decision making, but he is also human. Haunted by that night in the Marsh when the body of the Beast disappeared, we see Eddie go through a lot of character development, and readers can get attached to him. We can root for him, we can groan when he maybe fights someone post his own accident in the Marsh, but most of all, there is a redemption. Even though, out of all, Eddie Devlin was the the last person who needed it.
Even Gwen, who I thought was such a good green flag, someone who could change Eddie's way and be a good influence on his demon scattered brain, showed to not be all that Eddie pedastaled her to be. However, Gwen's involvement is arguably the lesser of the two evils, but this novel does a fantastic job of showing that not everyone is either fully good or fully bad.
Humans are murky, like the waters of the Marsh.
The pacing of this novel was right in all the right places, slowing down when it needed to and picking up when I frankly could not put the book down, highlighters and sticky tabs on the ready. The characters were all their own grit of uniqueness, and overall, a fantastic telling of how trauma can haunt us, even in the aftermath of what people deem the "healing period." And the ending is probably on the top 3 of my all-time favorite endings, because we go through the novel meeting Eddie's "beast" Kyle Hardy and holding our breath for when they meet, and in the end, it feels like a breath of relief.
Kevin is an immaculate writer of tension, character redemption ( and putting people past the point of NO redemption ), and he knows how to captivate his readers for pages and pages on end with intricate phrasing and scene development. Fantastic read, 10/10 would read again.
*
*
*
*
A devilishly, intricate weeding of a snake in a guilt ridden garden, and navigating through ghosts that drag us under.
From cover to cover, this book was phenomenal. Eddie Devlin is the biggest beige flag of a character I've ever read, and I mean that in such a good way. He has flaws, his drinking, his sometimes not the greatest decision making, but he is also human. Haunted by that night in the Marsh when the body of the Beast disappeared, we see Eddie go through a lot of character development, and readers can get attached to him. We can root for him, we can groan when he maybe fights someone post his own accident in the Marsh, but most of all, there is a redemption. Even though, out of all, Eddie Devlin was the the last person who needed it.
Even Gwen, who I thought was such a good green flag, someone who could change Eddie's way and be a good influence on his demon scattered brain, showed to not be all that Eddie pedastaled her to be. However, Gwen's involvement is arguably the lesser of the two evils, but this novel does a fantastic job of showing that not everyone is either fully good or fully bad.
Humans are murky, like the waters of the Marsh.
The pacing of this novel was right in all the right places, slowing down when it needed to and picking up when I frankly could not put the book down, highlighters and sticky tabs on the ready. The characters were all their own grit of uniqueness, and overall, a fantastic telling of how trauma can haunt us, even in the aftermath of what people deem the "healing period." And the ending is probably on the top 3 of my all-time favorite endings, because we go through the novel meeting Eddie's "beast" Kyle Hardy and holding our breath for when they meet, and in the end, it feels like a breath of relief.
Kevin is an immaculate writer of tension, character redemption ( and putting people past the point of NO redemption ), and he knows how to captivate his readers for pages and pages on end with intricate phrasing and scene development. Fantastic read, 10/10 would read again.
July 12, 2025
Ridiculous Story
Awful in every Imaginal way. The Plot is weak, unreal, Contrived. The Author is winging it. He has No Grasp on actual Law Enforcement. He uses Over the Top Outlandish False Police Officer Stereotypes that have been used in other Bad Books, in Movies and on TV.
The Main Character, a Drunk Lazy Police Officer, has No Redeemable attributes. He is Not Interesting, just a Vile incompetent hypocrite.
The Criminal is an unthankful, Sociopath Young Adult...
Everything is a mess in this Book. The writing is bad. None of the Characters are described in any detail. From the Book: "I was wearing a 1980s Boston Celtics Championship 🏆 shirt..." Ok great but there is No context given for the shirt. There is No mention of race, height, no sense on what this phantom looks like or for that matter who anyone else looks like either. I am OK not knowing in every single scene what the established Characters look like, specifically what they are wearing. But I have a problem with Never having a Detailed Description of the Characters in the Book.
Some Authors will: "She dressed like she was Still 20 years old, but the red mini skirt and black tank top were Not Flattering her Especially with the deep wrinkles in her face particularly covered by over done thick makeup. No this Over the Hill 5 foot 3 inch Prostitute, going car to car in red 3 inch high hills, making her a good 5 foot 6 inches, she was in her 40s quickly pushing 50 Years Old. From far off Johns were interested but most drove away Quickly when they saw she was someone's grandma..."
This Author doesn't write with any Description that will make a Character come to life.
Awful in every Imaginal way. The Plot is weak, unreal, Contrived. The Author is winging it. He has No Grasp on actual Law Enforcement. He uses Over the Top Outlandish False Police Officer Stereotypes that have been used in other Bad Books, in Movies and on TV.
The Main Character, a Drunk Lazy Police Officer, has No Redeemable attributes. He is Not Interesting, just a Vile incompetent hypocrite.
The Criminal is an unthankful, Sociopath Young Adult...
Everything is a mess in this Book. The writing is bad. None of the Characters are described in any detail. From the Book: "I was wearing a 1980s Boston Celtics Championship 🏆 shirt..." Ok great but there is No context given for the shirt. There is No mention of race, height, no sense on what this phantom looks like or for that matter who anyone else looks like either. I am OK not knowing in every single scene what the established Characters look like, specifically what they are wearing. But I have a problem with Never having a Detailed Description of the Characters in the Book.
Some Authors will: "She dressed like she was Still 20 years old, but the red mini skirt and black tank top were Not Flattering her Especially with the deep wrinkles in her face particularly covered by over done thick makeup. No this Over the Hill 5 foot 3 inch Prostitute, going car to car in red 3 inch high hills, making her a good 5 foot 6 inches, she was in her 40s quickly pushing 50 Years Old. From far off Johns were interested but most drove away Quickly when they saw she was someone's grandma..."
This Author doesn't write with any Description that will make a Character come to life.
December 19, 2022
A Good plot with interesting twists This was the first novel I read by this author and it kept me engaged. I did like the settings described.
The Kindle edition contained a few spelling errors which always disappoints me, because I am horrid at editing so if I can find them; it is pretty bad. However, I would definitely read more by Kevin Carey.
The Kindle edition contained a few spelling errors which always disappoints me, because I am horrid at editing so if I can find them; it is pretty bad. However, I would definitely read more by Kevin Carey.
September 20, 2022
No Wasted Words
Kevin Carey is quite a writer. He packs a lot in each sentence. The story moves right along, and a complex story it is. I was from the South Shore area and loved reading a gritty story like this about areas I mostly just passed through. Go Boston.
Kevin Carey is quite a writer. He packs a lot in each sentence. The story moves right along, and a complex story it is. I was from the South Shore area and loved reading a gritty story like this about areas I mostly just passed through. Go Boston.
March 9, 2021
Good, solid mystery/thriller
There's a quote from a review on the front cover - "a streets tough crime novel with a poetic soul." I think that says it all.
There's a quote from a review on the front cover - "a streets tough crime novel with a poetic soul." I think that says it all.
March 11, 2021
Fantastic read! I loved the grit and authenticity of this world. Kudos, Kevin!!
September 18, 2022
The story was compelling but wasn’t keen on the style.
September 26, 2022
Was okay
I found it was a bit confusing at times because of the multiple storylines and different characters.too many people to keep straight
I found it was a bit confusing at times because of the multiple storylines and different characters.too many people to keep straight
Read
September 26, 2022Read 9/22
October 10, 2022
Twists. And Turns to the Last Page
Skin-crawly characters are twined around and back , as if to reveal that each is the villain... Or are they the good guy?
Skin-crawly characters are twined around and back , as if to reveal that each is the villain... Or are they the good guy?
October 23, 2022
Small Town Police Mystery
Intriguing, but pretty Raw. Police taking care of business, maybe outside of the normal police routine. Corruption? Conspiracy? Who are the Good Guys?
Intriguing, but pretty Raw. Police taking care of business, maybe outside of the normal police routine. Corruption? Conspiracy? Who are the Good Guys?
October 27, 2022
An ok story. At times a bit confusing but ok
Read
February 19, 2023Dark and engaging
Well written, vivid, dark and haunting with a couple of unexpected directions that keep the story engaging and the ending uncertain.
Well written, vivid, dark and haunting with a couple of unexpected directions that keep the story engaging and the ending uncertain.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews