Harry Doyle was murdered at age ten by his religious fanatic mother. Resuscitated by the police, Harry comes back from the dead and survives an event that will shape the rest of his life. Twenty years later he has dedicated his life to putting killers behind bars as a homicide detective who has the unwanted ability to hear the postmortem whispers of murder victims. Dubbed The Dead Detective by his fellow cops, Doyle now faces his most difficult case: a beautiful murder victim who was a notorious child molester. It is a case that will shake Harry to his very core.

Harry Doyle, known to his peers as the Dead Detective, finds himself faced with what many consider the most powerful and secretive cult in the country-Scientology. Clearwater, Florida, the spiritual center of Scientology, is run by a fanatical group of true believers who insist that members remain pure and true to their faith. One senior leader has a young man in his employ, a twisted soul who will stop at nothing to make sure the rules are followed. But Harry Doyle, his partner Vicky Stanopolis, and Clearwater Sergeant Max Abrams are in hot pursuit, forcing the killer to run for cover. In a shocking denouement where everyone’s life hangs in the balance, Harry and Vicky come face-to-face with death in a form they never expected.

Trapped in what appears to be an endless bloodbath – vividly presented with Heffernan’s meticulous historical research – three boys gradually begin to change until their close-knit childhood ties are little more than a fractured memory. By war’s end, one boy is dead, one returns a physically crippled and emotionally compromised man, and the third comes home as an unfeeling psychopath. The novel turns on the subsequent murder of the psychopath, and the offer of redemption for the wounded young man who must investigate the crime. When Johnny Came Marching Home is a story about war, and how it affects the lives of all who become a part of it, both directly and peripherally.