[Mallory 04] • A Shroud for Aquarius

When Sheriff Brennan suspects that Ginnie Mullen's death was murder, not suicide, he asks Mallory, a mystery writer and former friend of the victim to quietly investigate. — From Publishers Weekly — Mystery writer Mallory was a precocious reader as a youth and for years shared the thoughts spawned by great books with his high school friend Ginnie Mullens. But the two lost touch as adults although they lived in the same small Iowa town. Nevertheless, Mal is troubled by Ginnie's apparent suicide and agrees to help the police chief, sub rosa. Tracing her life back from her recent business success to her '60s-style rebellion, Mal is saddened to uncover gambling and drug trafficking in Ginnie's history, a history some of her associates would persuade him to leave alone.