Aged in Charcoal

Two weeks after Charles Ogilvy, a highly successful post-WWII Southern California real estate developer and soon-to-be candidate for lieutenant governor, is found dead in his home near Santa Julietta, his wife, Margaret, hires Stu Fletcher to find Charles's three-decades-missing sister, Bernice, who apparently -- out of the blue -- sent Charles a postcard postmarked in San Jose shortly before he died. Next to the postcard Margaret found a note in Charles's handwriting reading: Find Bern. Must apologize. Margaret presumes the postcard is the key to her husband's shocking suicide. The twisted, confusing trail leads Fletcher up the coast to colorful Santa Cruz, then on to San Francisco, in search of the elusive sister. Everywhere he looks he finds nothing but danger and lies. He also finds that the more he uncovers, the more he is convinced Charles was murdered.