June, 1968. The country is disintegrating into a chaos of racial strife, urban uprising, assassination and violent protest against the Vietnam War. When the mutilated body of a young Puerto Rican woman is discovered by a small boy on the shore of a white, conservative, working-class New Jersey town, Police Captain Timothy Clarke and twenty-five-year-old Officer Kevin MacDougall race to identify the murderer in a town with no shortage of suspects.

Among them: the less-than-truthful boyfriend of the deceased, a crusading young priest with contempt for authority, the frustrated father of the boy who discovered the body, a bigoted widow yearning for the past, a battle-fatigued Vietnam veteran, or his sister and provider who holds a secret of her own.

A second body is discovered, that of a butchered white woman, and the citizenry is primed for chaos. Why, they demand, do the police seem so preoccupied with solving the death of a minority rather than protecting the town’s white majority? Officer MacDougall is forced to reevaluate what has always been the norm as he investigates the words and motivations of people he has looked up to his entire life.

Could a disappearance thirty-five years in the past connect the murders? Is a fragile young alcoholic woman seemingly bent on self-destruction the key to uncovering the identity of the maniac?

The clock is ticking on Clarke and MacDougall. They need answers. Now. Before a third body emerges.

Impressive first book. I really liked this mystery for many reasons. First, the characters are complex – they are not all good or all bad. Good characters do some bad things. Bad characters have some good to them. They come across very human. Second, the setting of the sixties is well-developed and events relate strongly to today. Finally, it is a very engaging, multidimensional mystery that moves forward nicely and drives to a very satisfying ending. I highly recommend this to mystery readers.

-Goodreads review

An exceptional page-turner! The multiple storylines are interwoven so deftly that you want to know more about every character. The novel is Film Noir on the page with the turbulent history of 1968 surrounding it. The characters and their lives are so well developed that each character deserves its own novel. Gritty, raw, and at times savage, this murder mystery reads like it could have been ripped from the headlines. History, film noir on the page, and realism combine to give you a novel you will not put down until you find out who did it!

-Amazon review

I liked the detailed characters and their individual story lines that eventually came together. The setting of the book in the 60’s was very cool and the historical information included added to the feeling of the intrigue of the murder in the small town in New Jersey.  It was an easy, enjoyable read and I was anxious to continue reading to find out which small town character was a murderer.

-Amazon review

JE Mullane pulls the reader into the setting so keenly that I felt I had truly traveled to Pendale for a visit. I could feel the heat and the tension from the story and even smell the rotting fish and who knows what in Vern and Nora’s house. The plot is fast moving, and Mullane’s characters are developed and complex. If you are looking for a compelling mystery layered with societal conflicts that can still be felt today, you will definitely enjoy this book.

-Amazon review

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