William Heffernan

THE DEAD DETECTIVE by William Heffernan is the first title in Heffernan’s series by the same name - the dead detective.
Darlene Beckett is found in the Brooker Creek Preserve - posed in a provocative position with her throat cut and a Mardi Gras mask on her face. Harry Santos Doyle and his brand-new partner, Vicky Stanopolis get the call.
Complex characters and a very layered plot make this book an excellent read. The sense of place was very good; descriptions of the many-layered law show more enforcement community interesting; and a thinly veiled distaste of, and blatant bashing of sleazy, cultish, evangelical, brainwashing religious groups was very much appreciated.
I had just finished THE SCIENTOLOGY MURDERS and wanted to check out this first dead detective title. I’m glad I did. A great read. show less

When Johnny came marching home, he was a very changed man. He'd done things during the War Between the States that he shouldn't have been proud of, but was. Only a few months after we returned, he was dead, by a murderer's hand - but whose?

His friend, Jubal, is also now back from the war, minus an arm, but now the deputy constable of the town - helping his father, the constable. It's up to Jubal to find out who killed his former friend. Clues lead to several people - a clandestine lover, an show more old army buddy who's more ruthless and shifty that Johnny was, the woodsman whose daughter is looking for something.

Does Jubal find the answer and is it what you think?

A fine novel set in the 1860s which nicely goes back and forth between the present (1865) and the past (before and during the war). show less

This is the second book about Florida detective Harry Doyle, nicknamed 'the dead detective' because he survived his psychotic mother's attempt to kill him and his six year old brother. Somehow the near death experience gave him the ability to sense information from the recently deceased: the final words they thought or said, final words said to them or the identity of their killer. This case begins with his beloved foster father, a retired police officer, is shot while trying to help a show more fellow retired officer retrieve his daughter from the Church of Scientology. Heffernan doesn't pull any punches in portraying the Church as an organization that will do anything to maintain control of the lives and finances of its members. In this case, the officer in charge of discipline has hired a full blown sociopath as an enforcer, leading to murders and attempted murders. The case takes Doyle and his partner to Alaska and a chase through the bush after a heavily armed man with nothing to lose. Doyle's psychic abilities are not overused as a plot gimmick and his on going struggle to keep his distance from his parolee mother is worked into the plot as well. A good mystery if you can stand to be in the mind of the killer and endure scenes of graphic violence. show less

THE SCIENTOLOGY MURDERS (a dead detective novel) by William Heffernan, was sent to me in exchange for an honest and unbiased review by Akashic Books.
Harry Santos Doyle, a Homicide Detective with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department, wants to investigate an incident in which his adoptive father, ‘Jocko’ Doyle, is shot in the back while looking for a friend’s daughter, Mary Kate O’Connell, who is being ‘coerced’ into remaining with the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, show more Florida. Mary Kate later turns up dead at the same marina where Jocko was shot.
Harry and his partner, Vicky Stanopolis, are joined by Max Abrams of the Clearwater Police in their pursuit of psychopath, Tony Rolf (Rawlings), and the Clearwater Church of Scientology’s, Regis Walsh.
Other characters include Meg Avery (Adams), head of a security agency working for The Church and Kenneth Oppenheimer, Walsh’s assistant.
The characters are complex and in the case of Walsh, Rolf and Avery, extremely sinister, dangerous and manipulative. There is a well-developed plot and lots of suspense.
If you aren’t a fan of this bogus ‘church’, you will never be a fan after reading this book. I hesitate to use the word church, as this group is really a fanatical cult, but you can make up your own mind.
I was very impressed with the author’s ‘sense of place’. All the little details added up to rich descriptions of characters and location. Meg Avery’s wardrobe details; which team the Rays are playing and the pitcher they’re facing; fashion names and brands; street names and neighborhoods; Cuban influences; food choices like arroz con pollo; transport in Alaska; animals - all these details get the reader involved in the story on many levels - not just the mystery part.
I liked the descriptions of the ‘layers’ and overlapping of law enforcement in Florida - federal, state, county and town.
Page 25 will explain Harry’s nickname of ‘the dead detective’ and page 37 will give details of the cult of Scientology founded by the writer L. Ron Hubbard.
I would heartily recommend this title. show less