Not every mystery is a tricky whodunit. The villain in Janet Dawson’s Water Signs isn’t hard to detect, but following a PI Jeri Howard investigation is so enjoyable that the reader won’t care. The mystery begins with the discovery of a security guard’s
 body near the construction site where
 he was working. Informed by his boss 
that Cal Brady had a
 drinking problem, the 
cops put it down to a 
workplace accident.
 Jeri isn’t so certain.
 An old co-worker of
 Brady’s, she had
 heard he no longer drank. So when the autopsy reveals he was stone-cold sober at the time of his death, Jeri rightly suspects he was murdered, and sets off to prove it. One of the major delights of Water Signs—and there are many—is found in its portrayal of an unusual set of homeless people. Technically, this group isn’t really homeless; they’re squatting on several of the many abandoned boats floating around the Oakland, California’s Bay Area estuary. Author Dawson treats us to descriptions of the many ways these folks survive, right down to the bathroom details (more interesting and complicated than landlubbers might think). Dawson also educates us about a massive real-life project called the San Francisco Bay Trail, which is putting together 500 miles of hiking trails to connect various California cities. Given the legal difficulties of such a grand plan, figuring out the fictional villain in Water Signs is easy. No matter. The beautiful descriptions of the Oakland-area estuary and the visits with the irascible floating homeless make this mystery smart and highly enjoyable.