Joe Leland, war hero, career cop, private detective, is a public tough guy whose private world is coming apart.When a wartime acquaintance is killed in a fall from a race-track roof, his young widow hires Leland to investigate. As the search progresses, Leland is drawn into the shadows of Colin MacIver's life and into the black areas of his own past - the war, his troubled marriage, the brutal murder case that ended his police career.Made into a classic film starring Frank Sinatra, The Detective is a psychological thriller as well as a portrait of a man confronting violence and horror - and himself.