The Night Remembers -- Ed Gorman

Here's a forgotten book that's not entirely forgotten. It's back in print from Ramble House.

Jack Walsh is a former cop who now manages an apartment house and does a little sleuthing. He's in his 60s and is dating a younger woman who has some serious problems of her own. The wife of his former partner keeps showing up at his office, trying to prove she can be a part of his life, maybe even become his partner in the agency. But those are the least of his problems. A prospective client shows up, Mrs. Pennyfeather, the wife of a man Walsh sent to prison when he was a cop. She wants him to prove that her husband, who's just been released, was innocent to begin with. Walsh refuses, but he finds himself drawn into a new case when a woman is murdered in the Pennyfeathers' back yard. What he uncovers is about as dark as it gets.

The Night Remembers was originally published in 1991, and it proves that Ed Gorman has been very good for a long time. But then you knew that. He gives us real people with real problems, trapped by their pasts and trying to deal with the present as best they can. Pick this one up from Ramble House if you haven't read it already. But don't read it when you're depressed.