The Dead Detective

August 2, 2010
A lead whose psychology is underdeveloped and an easily solvable puzzle mar Edgar-winner Heffernan's contemporary whodunit, his first novel in seven years. When Florida homicide cop Harry Doyle was 10, his religious fanatic mother tried to kill him and his younger brother, Jimmy, to send them to heaven. The police were able to resuscitate Harry after he technically died, but were too late to save Jimmy. That trauma earned Harry the nickname of the "dead detective" when he joined the force as an adult. With his mother still writing him from jail on the anniversary of her crime, Harry finds distraction in a high-profile murder investigation. Disgraced teacher Darlene Beckett, who slept with one of her teenage students, has turned up in a nature preserve with her throat slashed and the word evil carved into her forehead. Heffernan (Tarnished Blue) has trouble providing clues to the killer's identity without giving the game away.

August 15, 2010

His fellow officers think Harry Doyle speaks a dead language. Close.

When Harry was ten, and his brother Jimmy six, their mother decided to murder them—an act required, she explained, because she'd asked God to "deliver her sons to His heavenly peace." Jimmy checked out as planned, but at the last possible moment, Harry was dragged back to life by a couple of CPR-savvy Tampa patrolmen. Years later, a sardonic colleague nicknames Harry, now a cop, the "dead detective," and it sticks. He proves a natural, cracking cases at an impressive rate. In the homicide unit of the Pinellas County (Florida) sheriff's department, conventional wisdom maintains that the dead detective converses with the deceased, and in a sense he does. Staring down at the corpse of Darlene Beckett, for instance, he can lock onto the disbelief that preceded terror at the instant of her death. It's as if she's found a posthumous way to communicate a sequence of emotions only Harry is privy to. As it turns out, Darlene Beckett's is no ordinary case. Stunningly beautiful, she was also infamous, a convicted child-abuser. Harry, of course, has a special, painfully complex connection to that kind of woman. Will it help or hinder him now?

After a lengthy hiatus, Edgar-winner Heffernan (A Time Gone By, 2003, etc.) makes a welcome return. Though the plotting shows some rust here and there, tough, troubled Harry Doyle will keep readers in line.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2010

Harry Doyle is called the Dead Detective because at age ten he was murdered by his mother, only to be revived. Now he's a Tampa homicide detective reputed to hear messages from the victims of the crimes he's investigating. His current case involves the death of a drop-dead gorgeous child molester, whose body is found in a nature preserve, her throat slashed and the word "evil" carved into her forehead. A Mardi Gras mask attached to her face is the final indignity. Before everything can be wrapped up, Harry and members of an investigative team unearth a host of suspects, psychological profiles, and forensics details; every eye is steely, every jaw is clenched, and every detail is in its rightful place just as in the best TV dramas. It all goes down a treat, and leaves not a trace behind. VERDICT In his first new novel in seven years, Edgar Award winner Heffernan (Tarnished Blue) delivers a readable, tidy police procedural that echoes any number of popular television series, from The Mentalist to Criminal Minds, whose many fans will find this series debut enjoyable, if not familiar.--Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2010
Murder victims dont actually talk to Harry Doyle, but he does intuit things about how they died. Thats one reason why fellow cops call him the Dead Detective. Another is that two decades before, he and his younger brother were murdered by their deranged mother. Harry was resuscitated, but his younger brother died. Raised by a Clearwater, Florida, cop, hes now a by-the-book but very tightly wound detective with the Pinellas County Sheriffs Department, and hes investigating the murder of a young, dazzlingly beautiful local schoolteacher whose seduction of a 14-year-old student became a media frenzy. Departmental brass want a speedy solution to her murder. At the same time, Harrys still-deranged mother is being considered for parole because of overcrowding in Floridas jails. The Dead Detective is a meaty story that offers an intriguing and conflicted protagonist, a darkly fascinating victim, solid police-procedural detail, a knowing look at the Tampa Bay area and its politics, an unlikely murderer, and a creepy denouement that hints that Harry will be back.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)