DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT – Something Wicked. PI Rush McKenzie #19. Minotaur Books, hardcover, May 2022. Setting: Minnesota.

First Sentence: “Jenness Crawford’s voice trembled with rage.”

   Rushmore McKenzie may have retired from the police force, but when a friend of his wife, Nina, asks for help, McKenzie can’t refuse. Jenness believes someone murdered her grandmother despite a lack of evidence. However, her biggest concern is that her siblings want to sell their 1883 home, hotel and restaurant, struggling since the pandemic, to developers. The Sons of Europa, a group calling for the preservation of white families, wants her to sell so zoning laws might be changed, and no one wants that.

   Housewright can be relied upon for an excellent sense of time and place, and wonderful dialogue. His realistic inclusion of live in the time of COVID is very well done. He deals with the issues of white supremacy, racism, greed, deceptiveness, infidelity, and more while being objective and non-preachy.

   McKenzie, Nina, and the town’s sheriff Deb are the ones who hold the story together and maintain our interest. There is a danger inherent with a plot which centers on a family rivalry; the characters tend to be unpleasant. That was certainly the case here. While Jenness avoided that curse, she was overshadowed by the other characters.

   There were significant weaknesses to the book. Exposition can be interesting but unless it moves the plot forward, it’s filler. Predictability is boring. Highly dramatic points at 50 percent and 75 percent makes one think of Midsomer Murders. An ending that tells, rather than shows, seems lazy. Classifying this story as a “locked-room mystery” is deceptive, and a major loose thread, even when acknowledged in the epilogue, wonders why it was there in the first place. Housewright is usually better than this. It seemed as though his heart just wasn’t into this book.

   Something Wicked relies on the strength of its principal characters and they don’t disappoint. A protagonist with a strong, committed, supportive relationship is such a pleasure. It may not overcome everything but serves as the core for a decent way to spend a day.

Rating: Okay.