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Before author Max Allan Collins<\/strong> hit the big time with his Joe Heller novels and The Road to Perdition<\/i>, he wrote several novels about an Iowa mystery writer with a sideline in real-life sleuthing, called Mallory (no first name; his friends call him Mal). Judging by A Shroud for Aquarius<\/a><\/i>, Collins was already at that point an excellent writer.<\/p>\n Mallory is called in by the county sheriff to view the scene of the violent death of Ginnie Mullens. Ginnie was Mal\u2019s oldest friend (never a lover). Though estranged in high school, after which Ginnie became a hippie and got into the drug world, they\u2019ve kept in touch, and Mal has always intended to try to mend fences. He never quite got around to it.<\/p>\n The scene looks like a suicide by handgun, but the sheriff isn\u2019t sure. Ginnie is known to have had dangerous connections, and he suspects foul play. There\u2019s also a double indemnity insurance angle. Mal, partly from feelings of guilt, agrees to look into it. Danger, ugly revelations, and a new love await him on his quest.<\/p>\n One thing that\u2019s especially interesting about this book, written in the \u02bc80s, is that today\u2019s reader has to view it through a double lens of history. A Shroud for Aquarius<\/i> is largely a meditation on the aftereffects \u2013 which Mal sees as mainly bad \u2013 of \u02bc60s counterculture.<\/p>\n But for the reader in the 2010s, the \u02bc80s setting is in itself a distant mirror, and it\u2019s hard not to think that the hippies won after all, considering that we have an acolyte of Bill Ayers in the White House right now.<\/p>\n Which is a melancholy thought, at least for me.<\/p>\n But the book is good, and is recommended. The usual mild cautions for language and themes apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before author Max Allan Collins hit the big time with his Joe Heller novels and The Road to Perdition, he wrote several novels about an Iowa mystery writer with a sideline in real-life sleuthing, called Mallory (no first name; his friends call him Mal). Judging by A Shroud for Aquarius, Collins was already at that … Continue reading A Shroud for Aquarius, by Max Allan Collins<\/span>