Heffernan, William

Unholy Order: A Paul Devlin Mystery

A woman is dead, her throat and midsection viciously slashed open, a lethal dose of heroin found in her system. But what makes this grisly New York outrage different from all the others -- and tosses the "red-ball" squarely in Detective Paul Devlin's lap -- is the fact that this victim was a nun. Blistering heat is coming down from the mayor's office, One Police Plaza, and the Archdiocese, so Devlin needs to find a murderer, and fast. But suddenly walls are being made to derail an investigation that is leading Paul Devlin and his people in a shocking direction: into the secret, fortified heart of the Catholic Church itself -- and toward a terrifying conspiracy cloaked in silence, piety, and blood that extends wider than anyone ever imagined.

Red Angel: A Paul Devlin Mystery

Anyone who brings grief to the people NYPD detective Paul Devlin loves is going to have to pay. That's why he's accompanying Adrianna Mendez, the lady of his heart, to Cuba, where Adrianna's aunt Maria has met with a serious "accident." A great hero of Castro's revolution, revered throughout the island as Angel Rojo, Dr. Maria Mendez was burned beyond recognition in a car wreck, then her body was stolen by members of a bloodthirsty voodoo sect. Now Devlin is determined to recover the Red Angel's remains and unravel the dark secret behind her death. But the New York cop's legendary street sense may not be enough to keep him breathing in this unfamiliar world of corruption, terror, and potent black magic -- especially when a vengeful madman and his killers land on the enigmatic island with one immediate goal: to watch Paul Devlin die.

A Time Gone By

"A superior crime drama . . . Edgar-winning Heffernan once again shows himself a craftsman of the hardboiled style, as well as a seamless handler of shifting viewpoints and emotions."-Publishers Weekly

Spanning the years from 1945 to 1975, A Time Goes By is rich in atmosphere and ripe with the kind of white-hot, hardboiled sexuality that distinguished the classic detective novels of authors like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and the noir films to which they gave rise. Jake Downing is a rookie detective on the New York City Police force when he is called in to investigate the murder of one of the city's most prominent judges. The eventual outcome of the police investigation is the arrest and conviction--and ultimate execution--of a man who fit all the requirements of a killer. The murder case, and his involvement in its resolution, launches Jake Downing's career, a meteoric rise to the position of Chief of Detectives. But what Downing can't ever escape is his knowledge that the wrong person was sent to the electric chair--it is something that has haunted him for years, ultimately destroying his personal life by driving away everyone he had ever loved. Now, facing retirement, Downing decides to reopen the investigation, to get both the record and his conscience straight--no matter what it costs, no matter whom it hurts. What really happened on that rainy night in 1945? Who wanted the judge killed? When Jake Downing was given the task of protecting judge's sultry young widow, he knew it was a mistake--she was beautiful and vulnerable, but she was also trouble. It was an assignment that would change forever the life of this idealistic young detective.

Now, two decades later, as he struggles to find the real murderer of Judge Reed, Jake Downing is opening a door he will never be able to close, as memories embrace him and shards of truth threaten to penetrate his soul. But is it truth that Downing really wants, or is it revenge?

Blood Rose (Signet)

Caging the Raven: A Novel

Tarnished Blue

Beulah Hill

William Heffernan, a solid craftsman when it comes to the thriller genre (Red Angel, The Dinosaur Club), changes pace with this thoughtful, beautifully detailed novel about race relations in Depression-era Vermont. Beulah Hill is better known as Nigger Hill, and its patriarch, Jehiel Flood, is a proud black farmer whose daughter Elizabeth, the local schoolteacher, has been loved since childhood by Samuel Bradley, now constable of Jerusalem's Landing. When the murdered body of Royal Firman turns up on Nigger Hill, Samuel is called to investigate. He may look white, but the victim's family and friends still taunt him with the epithet that denotes the result of three generations of miscegenation; "bleached" he may be, but according to Vermont law Samuel is as white as the Firmans, and tracking the killer of a white man on property owned by the last black family in the town is an uphill battle. Heffernan limns Samuel's inner conflicts with the same hard- edged clarity he brings to his portrayal of the icy landscape of Vermont in winter as his protagonist grapples with a truth he cannot bear to bring to light. This moody meditation on a little-known piece of history is hardly a thriller, but that shouldn't deter Heffernan's regular readers from discovering what else he can do besides spin a well-paced yarn: tell a small story with style, grace, and a decidedly literary talent. --Jane Adams

"The whispered revelations that come spilling out of -Beulah Hill are like ghostly voices you sometimes hear in the attic-soft, sad and disturbingly urgent."-New York Times Book Review

"Mesmerizing."-Publishers Weekly

A novel of rare literary distinction-an erotic thriller combined with a true mystery, and a look back at a little-known part of the American societal patchwork-Beulah Hill, by bestselling author William Heffernan, is a brilliant and deeply original work of fiction.

Set in the 1930s, the story follows the investigation of a racially motivated murder in a rural Vermont town and the shocking ramifications it has on that backwoods community, which had once served as a stopping place for runaway slaves. Having made new lives for themselves there, many of these former slaves married interracially, and their progeny became what was known as "bleached." The result was an atmosphere of tension and distrust that-as so vividly rendered in this novel-occasionally exploded in acts of violence . . . and even murder.

At a time when the Great Depression had created widespread fear and Hitler was just beginning his reign in Germany, Beulah Hill tells the story of a white man who was murdered in an almost ritualistic manner on land owned by the only remaining black family in that small town. Heading the investigation is a young con-stable who is himself a deeply conflicted member of the "bleached" underclass and who is intimately involved with the proud and headstrong black woman at the center of the killing.

William Heffernan, a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, is the author of 15 novels, including such bestsellers as The Corsican, The Dinosaur Club (a New York Times bestseller), Tarnished Blue (Edgar Award winner) and Cityside (forthcoming from Akashic in trade paperback in fall 2003). He lives in Vermont with his wife and three sons.

When looking for a house in Vermont, author William Heffernan grew intrigued by the region's fascinating racial history. Drawing on that history, he delivers a literary thriller involving the murder of a local racist in a town with a partly assimilated, but deeply resentful, black minority descended from slaves. By the 1930s, interracial marriages in a few communities had continued over several generations until succeeding progeny of original black families literally lost their color and, in the eyes of their neighbors, became white. Set against this vivid back-drop -- a time when the Great Depression had created an atmosphere of fear and bitterness and Adolph Hitler was just beginning his reign in Germany -- Beulah Hill tells the story of a white man who was murdered on land owned by the last remaining black family in a small town. Featuring the constable investigating the crime -- himself a conflicted member of the "bleached" underclass and intimately involved with the black woman at the center of the killing -- it is a gripping story. Depicting larger-than-life characters, including a black patriarch who rules "Beulah Hill" with an iron fist, Heffernan paints a startlingly authentic portrait of a town in the grip of prejudice, forbidden eroticism, and hard times.

Corsican Honor (Signet)

Ritual

Winter's Gold