The friend who introduced me to the band Little Feat had an old VW bug whose floor was rotting away, section by section, with a heating system that honored the concept of warmth more in the breach than in the observance. In all but the hottest weather, letting him drive meant Lowell George would be singing “Cold, cold, cold…” over and over in my head. Can’t say I enjoyed the frozen toes and ankles, but it was much better musically than the current weather setting a chorus of Buster Poindexter and “How you feeling? (Hot hot hot)” between the ears. I was in desperate need of some cool reading... NOW... to drown it out.
One of the nice benefits of acting as webmaster for Robin’s Aunt Agatha's Mystery Books site is that I get to read all her reviews etc. as I add them to the site. Not that I wouldn’t read them anyway, because they’re genuinely worth seeking out, but honestly the longer I'm on the web the less basic browsing I do after all the business and regular communication stuff is done. I just don't always think to check sites I like for updates before logging off in relief. But her most recent update piqued my interest with a review of an author I’d never heard of, David Housewright.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a bit of a mystery wimp. I don’t like what cozy seems to have morphed into, but neither do I tend to look for PI books, the gateway drug into another end of the spectrum where I know I don't want to be. I may have to re-think that strategy a bit. Robin was not only right about how good Housewright is, but since as a "series in order" person I went back to start with the first, I got the desired cool reading on multiple levels, as it opened with a subzero trek after a suspect.
I also kept thinking that anyone who is mourning the end of Spenser with Robert B. Parker's passing, or who, like me, has mourned for years the loss of the Spenser of the early books (Mortal Stakes has always been my favorite), might want to give Houseman's Rushmore "Mac" McKenzie a shot. I'm not saying these are in any way copycat or Spenser wannabes, because they're emphatically not. But there is a real feeling of connection in the sorts of people Mac and Spenser are, despite their differing backstories and environments, and significant common threads in their worlds and worldviews. I think the Spenser of the later books became somewhat of a self-parody, separate from other annoyances in the books. The Spenser of the early books may have seemed to good to be true in some ways, but he was also very believably human. So's his spiritual cousin Mac, a former cop come into independent wealth (I won't spoil it for you by telling you how) that left him a bit bored.
It also left him with the time and skills and independence to do "favors" only for the people he chooses to help rather than having to earn a living at it, like the usual licensed PI. Inevitably none of those favors end up as simple or innocent as they initially seem. The first book has him helping a friend find the runaway daughter who might be a compatible bone marrow donor for her younger sister. A search that morphs into something completely other involving gangs and prostitution, a respectable body count and not so respectable businessmen, before the end. The next book starts with another innocent seeming favor, this time for a friend of Mac's late father, looking into why so many of a beekeeper's bees are dying. Another favor that takes Mac far from it's roots into the worlds of violent crime that are never quite as distant as they seem. And the pattern is set for a highly enjoyable series that's got enough quirks to be memorable and appealing to go with the quality writing.
So if you haven't tried Housewright, settle in with a long cold one and A Hard Ticket Home (first in the series) for some cool reading to beat the heat. Or if you're not a series-in-order type like me grab the most recent one after being tempted into it by Robin's review. I can hardly wait to get there myself.
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