Man in the Water
by David Housewright
Minotaur Books, June 2024, $29

David Housewright’s latest Rushmore McKenzie novel, Man in the Water, is an easygoing mystery with a vivid Minnesota backdrop and a witty hero. When McKenzie (an unlicensed private detective who does favors for friends) and his wife, Nina Truhler, are invited for an early Spring cruise on the St. Croix River, everything goes wrong before it starts. In the marina parking lot a frantic woman, Elizabeth "Bizzy" Woods, asks them to help find her husband, E. J. Elizabeth. Seems E. J. went to look at the river and he never came back.

Nina finds E. J. dead in the icy river, his head is a few feet below the water’s surface and his hand still clutching the dock’s ladder. The police are called, but no one has a good explanation as to why he didn't just pull himself up. The plot thickens when McKenzie discovers E. J. had purchased four life insurance policies in the past year—to the tune of $500,000 each. Unsurprisingly, the underwriters of the policies claim E. J. killed himself and the companies refuse to pay off. Bizzy, trying to prove E. J.’s death was an accident, sues the marina for negligence and McKenzie is pulled into the case as a witness. When, during McKenzie’s deposition, E. J.’s daughter Nevaeh claims her father was murdered, McKenzie starts his own investigation. A few murders, a bunch of wisecracks, a shooting, and some excellent detecting leads McKenzie to the culprit.

Man in the Water begins slower than McKenzie’s usual investigations. The mystery bubbles and burbles, McKenzie and Nina trying to forget E. J. and that cold May morning at the river while the reader is wondering how (and when) McKenzie is going to get involved. But once McKenzie commits himself, at Nina’s insistence, things pick up nicely. Housewright’s style is smooth and McKenzie’s smart-alecky nature is endearing and, every so often, outright funny. The mystery is comfortable with enough excitement to keep the pages turning, but what makes Man in the Water appealing are the vibrant Minnesota setting and the characters (especially Bizzy and a woman McKenzie meets in a VFW bar).

Man in the Water isn’t David Housewright’s best novel, but it is still a bunch of fun.