N Is For Noose: Sue Grafton

Early Spring in the Sierra Nevada - the usual driving sleet and snow. P.I. Kinsey Millhone is on her way west when she detours into Nota Lake - population 2356 - to check out a new client. And encounters a chill she can scarcely believe. Only six weeks have passed since sheriff's detective Tom Newquist died of a heart attack. His widow was sure he was keeping secrets from her just before he died and she's hired Kinsey to find out just what those secrets were. But all Kinsey can uncover is that Newquist led an exemplary life, so what cold he possibly have to conceal? And why has the entire town closed ranks on her? She's on the point of giving up - and then she discovers a new clue...a childish drawing of a thick length of rope, fashioned into a hangman's noose...