Detective Mike Hoolihan, an American Policewoman, a police in cop parlance, begins to investigate the suspicious death of Jennifer, a police colleagues daughter. The evidence swings towards suicide - the gun in her hand, the suicide note, the secret history of depression and drug addiction, and then swings away - tree shots to the head; could be suicide administer three and why does the autopsy reveal no sign of drug abuse? As Mike probes further into Jennifers life and death, she approaches the puzzle at the dark heart of the case: If not who, then why? that unanswerable question resonates throughout this haunting short novel and even when Mike announces her investigation concluded and case closed, it lingers in her readers mind.