David Housewright

Rushmore McKenzie is a former police detective who became a millionaire and then a retiree. He has been an unofficial private investigator since then until his last case nearly cost him his life and left him in a coma. His wife, Nina, insisted that he fully retire. Until that is, a friend and former employee of Nina comes to her and asks for McKenzie's assistance.
Jenness Crawford funs the family castle that operates as a hotel/resort in Redding, Minnesota. Jenness's grandmother has died and show more now the relatives are feuding over whether to keep operating the hotel or sell the land to developers for millions. Jenness is convinced that her grandmother did not die of natural causes but the police do not agree. That's where McKenzie comes in. He finds himself trying to solve a locked-room mystery that includes a castle full of suspects. These include relatives with unique and common motives, long-serving staff, and some local troublemakers as well. McKenzie has to figure out if there was a crime and if so, how to avoid being the next victim.

Something Wicked by David Housewright was a wonderful surprise. McKenzie and his wife Nina are so damn likable their pictures should be in the dictionary next to "Minnesota nice". The setting is so richly described you feel yourself sitting on the steps of the castle and taking in the legendary sunsets. The cast of characters are all three-dimensional and have understandable motivations, even if it takes some work to uncover them. The mystery is intriguing, especially as you are not sure if a crime has been committed, let alone how and by whom. McKenzie is such an engaging character with his laid-back demeanor and sharp eye. The plot unfolds with plenty of viable suspects, a few red herrings, and a skilled detective to piece it all together.

I am so happy to discover this long-running series. It is easy to jump into the adventure as a new reader and this entry is sure to please existing fans. I look forward to reading more McKenzie adventures, both past and future.

One of my favorite reads of the year. I loved everything about this book.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. show less

Fear the Reaper by David Housewright is a very highly recommended investigative mystery. This is an excellent addition to the series but can easily be read as a stand alone novel. Rushmore McKenzie was once a police detective in St. Paul, Minnesota, but now does occasional investigations as an unlicensed PI after becoming an unexpected millionaire.

Rushmore along with his wife and good friend, Bobby Dunston, St. Paul head homicide detective, are visiting Patty and George at their retirement show more home on the Minong Flowage in Wisconsin. The group heads to Terrible Timmy’s Terrific Wine Club at Patty's insistence. While there a man stands and begins to point an AR-15 at the crowd. Bobby and Rushmore immediately take the suspected shooter down before he shoots and restrain him until law enforcement arrives.

Since the police department is small, the local sheriff asks McKenzie if he would be willing to help to further investigate who was the intended target. Complicating matters are Wisconsin's open carry laws, so, since no shots were fired, the charges against the gunman are minimal. McKenzie accepts the assignment and sets out to interview everyone who was at the wine bar again. Security footage helps point out anyone who was acting in a questionable manner, but once he starts questioning people, all manner of secrets and hidden activities come to light.

The writing is masterful in this fast-paced, well-plotted series. I was engrossed in the complicated plot from start to finish. All the clues uncovered are logically followed up along with all lines of inquiry. McKenzie may be questioning everyone who was present, which represents a lot of characters, but the logical investigation helps keep all the various characters separate as distinct individuals. There is so much going on in the group of suspects that it seems that if he want to, McKenzie could probably uncover several more crimes along the way. Everyone seems to have secrets they are keeping and want to keep hidden, which creates a complicated, intricate tangle of clues and potential motives.

McKenzie is a wonderful character who can be very personable, funny, and relatable, but he can also read the room and body language at the same time. He is a fully realized character, with strengths and weaknesses. Reading previous novel in the series will provide a richer experience because you will know his background and former cases, but this can still be appreciated as a standalone because enough background on his character is provided.

Fear the Reaper is an excellent choice for everyone who enjoys intricate investigative mysteries along with those already following the series. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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Rushmore McKenzie was a St. Paul policeman until an unexpected event allowed him to retire as a millionaire. Now he does favors for friends as an unlicensed private investigator. When graduate students Ivy Flynn (who first appeared in Tin City) and Josh Berglund come to him and ask for help finding gold never recovered from a 1930's bank robbery in North Dakota, McKenzie is intrigued.

What follows is a wonderful combination of a classic caper story and an interesting look into the seedy show more underbelly of St. Paul, MN in the 1930's, when corruption was rampant and gangsters were left alone by the police as long as they did their crimes elsewhere. I love spending time with McKenzie and his friends. The characters are very well developed (including the city of St. Paul) , the stories move quickly, and the writing is snappy. McKenzie is full of snark and sarcasm, which I really enjoy.

I highly recommend this series for anyone who likes hard-boiled P.I. novels that don't take themselves too seriously. They remind me of the Nebraska mystery series by William J. Reynolds, which came out in the late 1980s (and are definitely worth checking out from your local library if you can find them). They also remind me a little of Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennero mysteries, although those tend to be darker. show less

What Doesn’t Kill Us is the 18th installment in the P.I. Rushmore MacKenzie series and a real surprise. Early in the book, Mac is shot and spends the majority of the book in a medically induced coma while his friends and associates do the detecting. This gives us several separate investigations tracking the various threads that take them far afield while circling back with delicious synchronicity.

His best friend is police Lt. Bobby Dunston who absolutely cannot lead the investigation so he show more assigns his partner, a woman decidedly not fond of Mac. But there are the people he has done favors for in the past and they are returning the favor with brilliance and diligence. It is a delight to see how the disparate investigations following different trails all end up at the same place. Frankly, there is a hilarious, nearly slapstick denouement. I loved it.

I love Mac and it almost feels disloyal to love a book where he is unconscious through most of it, but I loved What Doesn’t Kill Us. It was a delight to see his friends take up for him. I loved how some of the less-than-legitimate friends were just as effective as the cops. So I love camp and I love capers and this felt like both and with Mac narrating the entire story in the past tense, there was no real sense of jeopardy to temper our enjoyment of the caper.

I received an e-galley of What Doesn’t Kill Us from the publisher through NetGalley.

What Doesn’t Kill Us at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan
David Housewright author site
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