Unidentified Woman #15

At the outset of Housewright’s arresting 12th McKenzie novel (after 2014’s The Devil May Care), a guy in a pickup truck dumps a woman’s bound body on a Twin Cities freeway in the midst of a snowstorm; ex-cop turned unlicensed PI Rushmore McKenzie just misses hitting the woman with his Audi. The 20ish woman is still alive and either has amnesia or is real good at faking it. As a favor to Bobby Dunston, a policeman friend of McKenzie’s, McKenzie and girlfriend Nina agree to let “Unidentified Woman Number Fifteen” move in with them temporarily. When she disappears one day, McKenzie launches an investigation, seemingly in competition with the police’s own. The plot and subplots involve so many characters it’s hard to keep track of who’s doing what to whom. But Housewright creates such pitch-perfect dialogue and gives such wry observations that you may forgive him this flaw. [em]Agent: Alison Pickard, Alison J. Picard Agency. (June) [/em]