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At the reading, Hynes said he based the book on major investigations he conducted at different times in his career. In the 70s, one investigation involved the indictment of 24 police officers who were supposed to suppress illegal gambling but were receiving bribes from bookmakers instead. And in the 80s, he oversaw an investigation as special prosecutor in which 16 officers from one precinct in Brooklyn were indicted for recycling drugs and guns through gangs. Hynes said he wrote the book to warn young police officers of the consequences of corruption. “I wanted to do something after witnessing so many officers destroy themselves and their families,” he said. He knew police officers “wouldn’t pay much attention to a text book on corruption by a lawyer.” So, he says, “I began to think something more dramatic would be helpful.”

The novel is not Hynes’ first foray in authorship. In 1990, he published Incident at Howard Beach, a book about the infamous late-1980s Howard Beach murders, for which his office handled the prosecutions.

Hynes read two passages from Triple Homicide, then took questions from the audience. He discussed the causes of corruption, civilian review boards, and his admiration for other crime writers including David Baldacci, John Grisham, and Nelson DeMille. He also recounted the difficulty of finding the right literary agent and moving the book through the editing process. He ended up working with the agent for Judge Ed Torres, who wrote the novel Carlito’s Way, which was made into a movie starring Al Pacino. Hynes said that he is working on his next novel and that there has been interest in making Triple Homicide into a movie.

Hynes, who teaches trial advocacy at Brooklyn Law School and other area law schools, began his career in public service in 1963 as an associate attorney for the Legal Aid Society. He joined the Kings County DA’s office in 1969 and moved up through the ranks with several high-profile appointments in the 1970s and 1980s as special prosecutor, which helped get him elected as district attorney in 1990. He began his fifth term in January 2006.