Tarnished Blue

The cruel murder of NYPD Captain Joe ``Little Bat'' Battaglia of the Organized Crime Control Unit causes waves of alarm to sweep from the mayor's office to the patrolmen's locker room. The murdered captain, who may have been gay, is the son of former cop Tony ``Big Bat'' Battaglia, now a United States senator. Luckily Heffernan's (Blood Rose) investigator, Paul Devlin is inspector of detectives. Devlin works directly for the mayor of New York City and has the power and authority to cut through the politics, the cover-ups and the lies in order to find out why ``Little Bat'' was killed. Choppy and brusque, Heffernan's writing is still almost romantic at times, sounding at odds with the hard facts and gory details. ``Despite his rugged good looks, Devlin seemed almost boyish when he smiled.... He was tall and solid with wavy black hair and dark blue eyes that could be surprisingly gentle or fierce.'' The investigation is complicated when Devlin's search uncovers deep corruption which must be carefully traced to its source, and the author is taxed mightily to bring all the loose ends together as the novel comes to its climactic end. The splendid character of Sharon Levy, a lesbian police detective who almost overshadows our hero, provides a real spark to this sometimes routine tale. (Apr.)