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?