What Doesn’t Kill Us by David Housewright /Review by Tim Suddeth
What Doesn’t Kill Us
David Housewright
Minotaur Books
$24.49
978-1250756992
May 2021
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It’s rare to read a book where the main character in a series sits a book out, but that is exactly what David Housewright does in What Doesn’t Kill Us, the eighteenth installment in his Rushmore McKenzie series. This book is a great rebuttal to the saying “No good deed goes unpunished.”
McKenzie is a former detective for the St. Paul Police Department. After coming into a fortune, he now acts as an unofficial private investigator, mainly doing favors for friends.
After someone shoots him twice in the back, leaving him in a coma with little chance of survival, those “friends” show up to return his favors. But first, they have to discover why McKenzie was outside a sketchy bar in a rough part of the city. Was he there to meet someone? Or was he there to join the regulars in whatever business they have going on in the basement?
Was he the target, or just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Whatever the reason, his friends know McKenzie. And whether they’re his former partners at the police department or the people who were on the receiving end of McKenzie’s favors, all are determined to use their own unique approach to make sure their friend gets justice in whatever way.
Housewright uses unique points of view to show readers why each person feels so indebted to the detective.
I loved getting to know the other characters and guessing why they feel so strongly toward McKenzie. Housewright uses the setting well. And this is an ending you won’t see coming.
I wish McKenzie a full and quick recovery. I can’t wait to read his next adventure.
Tim Suddeth was the 2017 Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship Award winner. He’s currently working on his fourth novel. He currently blogs for The Write Conversation and is trying to make a dent in his to-read bookcases. You can follow him at on his blog at timingreenville.com or on Twitter @TimSuddeth.