David Housewright is one of Minnesota’s best-known and most prolific mystery writers. His breakout debut, Penance, marks its thirtieth anniversary in 2025. Penance introduced readers to private investigator Holland Taylor, the first of Housewright’s indelible detective heroes, and won Housewright the Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1996. Practice to Deceive (1997), the sophomore outing for Holland Taylor, garnered Housewright his first Minnesota Book Award. Housewright is also the pen behind Rushmore “Mac” McKenzie, a Saint Paul cop-turned-investigator with an acerbic wit and an independent fortune which allows him to pursue cases out of a sense of justice, rather than financial gain. Two installments in the ongoing Mac McKenzie series, Jelly’s Gold (2009) and Curse of the Jade Lily (2012), also won the Minnesota Book Award. Housewright’s latest page-turners include Man in the Water (2024), a whodunit that picks up with a body but no crime scene, motive, or suspects – and in fact, no proof of murder at all.

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