REVIEWS FOR TO KNOW GOOD AND EVIL

Rating: 5 

Daniel V. Meier, Jr.’s To Know Good and Evil is a gripping blend of investigative thriller, Southern noir, and philosophical reflection. The novel follows Frank Adams, a former NTSB investigator, who is pulled back to his hometown in North Carolina to look into the suspicious plane crash of his old college professor, Dr. Lanmore. What begins as a routine probe quickly unravels into a tangled web of scientific secrets, buried trauma, and small-town corruption. As Frank digs deeper, he faces threats, red tape, and a haunting past, all while uncovering the unsettling truth about the nature of good and evil.

I found Meier’s writing absorbing. The prose isn’t flashy, but it’s steady and textured, with just the right amount of grit and polish. His sense of place is one of the strongest elements in the book. Characters like Ted Grant, the eccentric philosopher, add layers of charm and introspection that counterbalance the tension. There are moments of dry humor and gentle melancholy that feel earned. I liked how the narrative takes its time; it trusts the reader to follow without rushing, which made the plot developments all the more satisfying when they landed.

That said, the story has a certain old-school feel that might not click with every reader. Some dialogue leaned theatrical, and the pacing in the first third felt a bit slow. But once the investigation gains steam, the book becomes hard to put down. The ideas it wrestles with, scientific responsibility, moral relativism, and institutional failure, are baked into the story, which makes it feel smarter than your average mystery. I appreciated how it didn’t shy away from asking big questions, even if it didn’t tie them up with a neat bow.

I’d say To Know Good and Evil is best for readers who like a thoughtful mystery, especially those who enjoy slow-burn thrillers with a strong sense of place and character. If you’re into literary suspense or stories that blend intellectual grit with good old-fashioned intrigue, this one’s worth a read.

  EDITOR'S PICK   

Meier's gripping mystery, the second in his Frank Adams Detective Series, opens on a summer evening with a plane crash in an industrial North Carolina hog farm. The small town of Scottsville, reeking of hog waste, is rocked by the accident and the death of the pilot, Dr. David Lanmore, a chemistry professor at the local college. Lanmore’s former student Ted Grant knows that the doctor has recently achieved a breakthrough in his cancer research, so Ted reaches out to Frank Adams, a retired Aviation Safety Inspector turned P.I., to look into Lanmore’s death. Frank hails from Scottsville himself, and Lanmore’s death compels him to return despite his complicated relationship with his hometown.

Frank’s investigation kicks off briskly, driven by engaging encounters that, in classic procedural fashion, reveal much about the milieu and Frank’s clear-eyed impressions of “odoriferous” factory farms and swank cocktail parties. Meier again makes the nuts and bolts of investigating plane crashes fascinating, even for readers who don’t know what an exhaust stack is, and the shoe-leather sleuthing engages as well, with Frank navigating a complex web of associations and some ghosts from his past—most notably his late mother and his unofficial “uncle,” Clayton Housley, an old-money scion. Frank must also contend with pharmaceutical CEO Hank Gordon and Malcolm, a young mechanic who seems afraid to speak. As Frank begins to connect the pieces of Lanmore's life, research, and death, secrets from his own past are revealed, leading him to reconsider many of his relationships and wonder whether uncovering the truth is worth risking his own life.

This follow-up to Guidance to Death stands on its own and will be easy for new readers to follow. Characters are engaging and well-developed, with their distinct personalities sharply etched by Meier’s spirited, straightforward prose. The story deftly infuses the characters’ multifaceted relationships and motivations with surprising twists and sustained tension that will keep readers invested even after the killer is revealed.

Takeaway: Smart mystery pitting an aviation expert against a chemist’s suspicious crash.

Daniel V. Meier, Jr.’s To Know Good and Evil is a sharp, engaging mystery set in the sweltering backroads of North Carolina. With the feel of a Southern noir, it follows retired NTSB investigator Frank Adams, who’s pulled back to his college hometown to investigate the suspicious crash of a small plane that killed his old chemistry professor. The tale is founded on a shocking twist and what begins as a favor to a friend soon turns into something deeper, full of danger, buried secrets, and big questions about morality, science, and the power of truth.

The story kicks off when Frank gets a call from an old college acquaintance, Ted Grant, who believes that the recent death of their former professor, Dr. Lanmore, wasn’t an accident. The plane crash that killed him also took out part of a corporate hog farm—an eerie, gruesome detail that sets the tone. Frank travels back to the small town of Scottsville to poke around, but what he uncovers is more than he expected. There’s palpable tension with the sheriff, a loud sense of weird behavior from the locals, and hints that Lanmore may have been working on something very important and possibly dangerous. As Frank begins to dig deeper, he starts to piece together a complex puzzle involving sabotage and corporate interests but is shocked to encounter people who’d rather keep the past buried.

With a steady pace in each chapter, we follow Frank as he visits the wreckage, interviews a nervous young mechanic, and inspects the damaged parts himself. We see the investigation quickly shift to a more thorough analysis of power, motivation, and secrecy, uncovering information that unexpectedly confirms his long-held concerns. He is a remarkably grounded protagonist, who is also outstandingly intelligent, and resolutely motivated by duty, memory, and a strong sense of justice throughout the narrative. Ted, his friend, brings a touch of dry humor and philosophical musing, making their interactions fun and believable.

This story is easy to follow and reads like a detective story with a scientific twist. While the chapters are well-paced and build smoothly on each other, the author's writing style is smooth and deeply engaging, with just enough sensory detail to make the readers feel as if they are part of the protagonist's endeavor.

Well depicted themes of truth, memory, and the blurred line between good and evil are woven throughout as pointed out by the title itself. What does it mean to act morally in a world full of corruption and compromise? The protagonist's journey is partly external, solving a mystery and also internal, revisiting a past he thought he’d left behind. The author's prose is smart but accessible, never bogged down in jargon or unnecessary description which makes this read one of the best flowing available in the genre.

Quill says: To Know Good and Evil by David V. Meier Jr. is a thoughtful, suspenseful read that balances mystery, character, and ideas. It’s a perfect pick for readers who enjoy mysteries that not only stimulate the mind with intelligent plotting and moral complexity, but also resonate emotionally through richly drawn characters and heartfelt themes..

Daniel V. Meier, Jr. has created an engaging private detective, Frank Adams, to solve this wonderfully twisty homicide investigation. Having escaped his small-town upbringing, Frank is dragged back to the insular rural community by the death of his college professor and the desperate plea of an old school friend. Everyone else believes the plane crash was a terrible accident, including local law enforcement, but it’s up to Frank to prove it was an elaborate conspiracy to steal the professor’s cancer research. To Know Good and Evil presents the paradox between those who, in trying to do a good thing, inadvertently unleash great evil. At the heart of the novel is the professor’s cure for cancer, offering on the one hand incredible hope for many, and on the other, unimaginable prosperity for the few.

The main theme of To Know Good and Evil is inadequacy. I appreciated the detailed portrayal of each character’s traits and how Daniel V. Meier, Jr. strips away their humanity to reveal hideous personal agendas and deep-rooted conspiracies that have kept an entire community imprisoned. Each has a hunger to be better than the image they’ve created. Only Frank Adams, the main character, is aware of his strengths and shortcomings and operates on a balanced and rational plane. I loved how this created a maypole effect, with him as the central, resistant pillar of the action while the other characters churn around him. The plot is delightfully detailed and executed, with enough antagonists and anti-heroes to make the ending a complete surprise. The descriptions are precise, and I felt as though I was part of the heart-stopping action. I really enjoyed this novel. My favourite and most poignant quote that sums it up is, “That’s all we have to do in life, choose to destroy or to create.”

To Know Good and Evil is the second book in the Frank Adams Detective series. It revolves around a cure for cancer, a struggle to exploit it, and investigator Frank Adams’ increasingly dangerous involvement when he is called upon to enter the fray of Big Pharma’s drive to acquire a dead doctor’s secret.

The story opens with a plane crash into a farmer’s field, moving to Frank Adams and a phone call from former college acquaintance Ted Grant, who asks for his help in probing chemistry professor Dr. Lanmore’s death.

Frank doesn’t necessarily know what he’s agreeing to, because the investigation that ensues keeps returning to small-town encounters, pigs, rich people, and poverty to entwine in a dance of special interests, discoveries, and possible murder.

Readers interested in a full-bodied murder mystery that embraces the lives, psyches, and underlying motivations of small town residents and big business alike will appreciate the unexpected avenues taken in To Know Good and Evil as it exposes Dr. Lanmore’s life and accomplishments.

Characters are well developed, tension is finely tuned, and the twists and turns Frank and others experience in the course of unearthing some disturbing associations are satisfyingly surprising and filled with possibilities.

Libraries looking for a mystery that both compliments a prior book but stands well on its own as a powerful inspection of motivation, science, special interests, Big Pharma, and big money will appreciate the many unexpected directions cultivated in this engaging story of historical precedent, present-day conundrums, and righting wrongs.

To Know Good and Evil is riveting, thought-provoking, and perfect for mystery fans interested in thoroughly engrossing reading.

Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, The MidWest Review

"How do you know what is evil and what is good,,,? Simple. Evil destroys, and good creates. Think about it."

Investigator Frank Adams receives a call from an old college chum after a light aircraft crash on a Scottsville, North Carolina, hog farm. Adams returns to his small-town roots, where the shadow of the old South still lurks beneath the sunny veneer of the new South. Adams immediately senses that the accident attributed to Dr. Lanmore's age and physical condition may in reality be rooted in sabotage. Adams' former college chemistry professor, now a cancer researcher with an impressive record of success, desired that his work be made available to mankind, much to the consternation of local politicians and pharmaceutical company representatives determined to generate profits that could transform Scottsville's agricultural economy.

Meier's insight into the dynamics of rural North Carolina will leave readers with a sense that his protagonist is written as an alter ego and may have strong parallels with his own life. Adams braves insular small-town politics and a host of public and personal obstacles while he untangles the web of deceit that led not only to Dr. Lanmore's untimely death but to various incidents that spill out from the plane crash like the eddies of the riverine swamp surrounding Scottsville, where spirits and dark mysteries abound.

Author Meier's career in FAA aviation safety combined with his academic passion for history and literature often spurs him to explore flight tropes and historical themes with a moral imperative in his diverse novels. This second volume in the Frank Adams Investigator series is no exception. Well-defined, complex characters with a plethora of conflicts and an expert, yet light, touch of aviation jargon lend authenticity and surprising plot twists to this tightly written tale. Both character motivation and plot merge and meander in creative ways to drive this narrative to an all-too-human conclusion.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review