Time's Witness: A Justin & Cuddy Novel (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
This is Malone’s second mystery set a small North Carolinian city to feature the likable, yet unlikely best friends and co-workers, Police Chief Cuddy Mangum and Detective Justin Savile V. The aristocratic Justin narrated the marvelous first book, Uncivil Seasons, and this follow-up, Dickensian in scope and every bit as wonderful as the first, is in excellent hands as narrated by the working-class, brainy, wise-cracking, often hilarious, and nearly always, cynical, Cuddy. He is a firm believer, and rightly so, that “justice has got a real eye for color (she prefers white), and for class (she likes upper and middle),” and rampant racial discrimination is at the heart of the book. I could go on, quoting from the book, and singing the praises of Malone’s incomparable dialog, his complicated enticing, often unpredictable characters, and his suspenseful plot which is peppered with both human failings and human virtues, and just the right amount and kind of humor, or I could simply say that I love Malone’s books.
— From Jeanne's PicksStreet-smart and straightforward police chief Cuddy Mangum and his refined homicide detective Justin Savile V are determined to keep their town's cultural, political and racial divisions stable…even peaceful. But when a young black activist is murdered while in the process of fighting for his brother's freedom from death row, the lines keeping Hillston, North Carolina, in balance start to crumble.
Thrust into a dirty political campaign and torn between his morals and his love for the wealthy and beautiful wife of an up-and-coming politician, Cuddy must uncover the secrets that lie in his own backyard.
From high-powered and elegant country club ballrooms to dark and dangerous bar room corners, Malone weaves a mystery of plot and place where the difference between good and evil and right and wrong sometimes become indistinct.
Michael Malone is the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he is now a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.