David Housewright

In David Housewright's 19th hard-boiled mystery Something Wicked, Rushmore McKenzie, who promised to retire after his last nearly-fatal case, gets talked into doing an old friend a favor involving a castle, a family fighting over an inheritance, and at least one mysterious death. Rushmore McKenzie was a detective with the St. Paul, Minnesota PD until unlikely events made him first a millionaire and then a retiree. Since then, he's been an occasional unofficial private investigator-looking into things for friends and friends of friends-until his most recent case put him into a coma and nearly into a coffin. Now, at the insistence of his better half Nina Truhler, he is again retired. That is, until a friend of Nina finds herself in dire straits and in desperate need of a favor. Jenness Crawford's grandmother owned the family castle-a nineteenth century castle that has been operating as a hotel and resort for over a hundred years. Since her grandmother's death, the heirs have been squabbl

Once a homicide detective in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rushmore McKenzie is, through a series of unlikely events, both a millionaire and an occasional private investigator. As an unofficial PI, McKenzie only looks into the occasional situation for friends or friends of friends. Jeanette Carrell stretches McKenzie's guidelines but she's in a bind. She's been arrested, indicted, and about to go on trial for murder. The body of the victim was found buried in a shallow grave at the far edge of her property. The victim was not only a neighbor, he was real estate developer accused of tricking a man with dementia, a friend of Carrell's, into signing away his property for development, property that he'd worked to keep pristine. When the developer was last seen, Carrell was heard threatening to kill him. Even more damning, a potential witness swears she saw Carrell digging near the grave site shortly after the victim disappeared. The final nail in the proverbial coffin is her alibi--she has none. Wi