David Housewright Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

David Housewright is an American crime novelist whose Minnesota mysteries are built around two private investigators: Holland Taylor and Rushmore “Mac” McKenzie. Housewright won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel for Penance, the book that introduced Taylor, while McKenzie later became the protagonist of his much longer series.

The two investigators should be treated as separate series. Holland Taylor has six novels through Girl in a Dumpster, while Rushmore McKenzie has twenty-three through Fear the Reaper. Both are best read in publication order, but neither series has to be completed before beginning the other.

Start by choosing which Minnesota private eye you want

• For Holland Taylor: Begin with Penance.
• For Rushmore McKenzie: Begin with A Hard Ticket Home.
• Newest Holland Taylor: Girl in a Dumpster, published in 2025.
• Newest McKenzie: Fear the Reaper, published June 23, 2026.
• For Housewright’s longest continuity: Follow McKenzie from book one rather than jumping directly to the newest case.

Holland Taylor disappeared for years, but his series never restarted

The first three Holland Taylor novels appeared in the 1990s. Housewright then concentrated on Rushmore McKenzie before bringing Taylor back almost two decades later. The newer Taylor books are continuations of the same character, not a reboot with a different history.

1. Penance (1995): Former St. Paul police officer Holland Taylor becomes involved in a politically sensitive murder investigation where personal history, blackmail, and powerful interests make it difficult to separate justice from revenge.
2. Practice to Deceive (1997): Taylor returns for another Minnesota investigation in which fraud, competing stories, and people protecting their reputations force him to determine which version of events can be trusted.
3. Dearly Departed (1999): A case involving disappearance, death, and complicated relationships pushes Taylor toward secrets that the surviving people in the victim’s life have strong reasons to keep hidden.
4. Darkness, Sing Me a Song (2018): Taylor returns after a long publication gap and becomes involved in a murder case surrounding a wealthy Minnesota family, where social position and conflicting testimony complicate the search for the killer.
5. First, Kill the Lawyers (2019): Violence directed toward attorneys sends Taylor into a case involving old grievances, legal conflicts, professional enemies, and somebody willing to turn hostility toward lawyers into murder.
6. Girl in a Dumpster (2025): Party girl Henrietta Weller wakes in a Minneapolis dumpster with no memory of how she got there and hires Taylor and his partner Sidney Poitier Fredericks to discover who kidnapped her and why.

Girl in a Dumpster gives Holland Taylor a new investigative partnership

Henrietta does not merely want an explanation. She knows somebody abducted her, held her, and then discarded her in a dumpster, and she wants the people responsible identified.

Taylor works the case with Sidney Poitier Fredericks. They discover that Henrietta had been kidnapped for ransom and begin tracing a sophisticated operation targeting daughters of wealthy and prominent Minnesota families.

The book works as a possible entry point because of the long gap in Taylor’s publication history, but readers who start with Penance will have a fuller sense of the investigator Housewright has been developing since his debut.

Rushmore McKenzie begins as a man who does not need clients

Rushmore “Mac” McKenzie is a former St. Paul police officer who became independently wealthy and left the force. He is often described as an unofficial or unlicensed private investigator because he takes cases as favors rather than because he needs investigative work to pay his bills.

That financial independence gives the series a distinctive structure. McKenzie can become involved because a friend asks, because a mystery interests him, or because he believes somebody is being treated unjustly.

All twenty-three McKenzie novels in order

1. A Hard Ticket Home (2004): McKenzie agrees to help with a missing-person problem and discovers that the disappearance reaches into family secrets, money, and people willing to kill to keep the past hidden.
2. Tin City (2005): Another favor pulls McKenzie through the Twin Cities and into a case where ordinary appearances conceal criminal interests and motives that become increasingly personal.
3. Pretty Girl Gone (2006): McKenzie becomes involved in the disappearance of a young woman whose family connections, privilege, and private relationships create several competing explanations for what happened to her.
4. Dead Boyfriends (2007): A woman’s romantic history becomes alarming when the men around her keep dying, forcing McKenzie to determine whether coincidence, bad choices, or deliberate murder explains the pattern.
5. Madman on a Drum (2008): The daughter of McKenzie’s lifelong friend Bobby Dunston is kidnapped, and the ransom demand leads directly back to people and events from the men’s childhood.
6. Jelly’s Gold (2009): McKenzie searches for legendary gangster treasure believed to have been hidden in Minnesota, where the possibility of lost money attracts people willing to lie and kill.
7. The Taking of Libbie, SD (2010): McKenzie is drawn to South Dakota and into a case involving a woman named Libbie, competing accounts of identity, and people whose stories do not fit together.
8. Highway 61 (2011): A case connected to Minnesota’s famous Highway 61 takes McKenzie through small communities, old relationships, and violence rooted in secrets carried along the road.
9. The Curse of the Jade Lily (2012): The theft of a valuable jade artifact brings McKenzie into conflict with collectors, museums, criminals, and competing claims about who truly owns the object.
10. The Last Kind Word (2013): McKenzie goes undercover around a criminal family and discovers that pretending to belong inside their world leaves him vulnerable to both the people he is investigating and the identity he has created.
11. The Devil May Care (2014): A wealthy family’s missing son becomes the center of a mystery involving privilege, money, and appearances carefully constructed to hide what really happened.
12. Unidentified Woman #15 (2015): McKenzie becomes involved in identifying a dead woman whose name, relationships, and reason for being targeted are initially unknown.
13. Stealing the Countess (2016): The theft of a valuable object called the Countess sends McKenzie into a case where collectors, ownership, money, and criminal opportunity overlap.
14. What the Dead Leave Behind (2017): A death opens questions that the victim’s surviving relatives and associates would rather leave unanswered, forcing McKenzie to reconstruct motives from what remains.
15. Like to Die (2018): McKenzie becomes involved in another suspicious death where private grudges and concealed motives turn an apparently contained problem into a dangerous investigation.
16. Dead Man’s Mistress (2019): The death of an artist and the value of his work create a dispute involving his mistress, ownership, inheritance, and people with strong financial motives.
17. From the Grave (2020): A threat connected to people McKenzie believed were gone appears to reach into the present, making an old danger feel very much alive again.
18. What Doesn’t Kill Us (2021): McKenzie faces the aftermath of violence that leaves him physically tested and forces people around him to confront what his dangerous unofficial work costs.
19. Something Wicked (2022): A new investigation built around deception and hidden motives brings McKenzie into contact with people whose public identities differ sharply from their private actions.
20. In a Hard Wind (2023): Rural Minnesota, difficult weather, local loyalties, and a tightly connected community shape a case where outsiders have trouble distinguishing rumor from evidence.
21. Man in the Water (2024): A body found in the water forces McKenzie to determine who the victim was and why somebody expected the circumstances of the death to remain unclear.
22. Them Bones (2025): A stolen dinosaur skull becomes the center of a complicated mystery involving collectors, ownership, scientific value, money, and people willing to commit serious crimes for a rare object.
23. Fear the Reaper (2026): After McKenzie takes down a man carrying an AR-15 at a small-town winery, he has to determine who the gunman intended to target and whether another attempt is coming.

Madman on a Drum reaches farther into McKenzie’s past than most cases

Bobby Dunston is a homicide officer and one of McKenzie’s oldest friends. When Bobby’s daughter is kidnapped, McKenzie provides the ransom and initially believes the crisis has ended when she is returned safely.

The case then turns back toward childhood. One of the kidnappers appears to be an old friend named Scottie, and revenge for supposed wrongs committed years earlier becomes central to understanding why McKenzie was targeted.

This is one reason publication order pays off. McKenzie’s friendships and personal loyalties become more meaningful after several earlier books have already established the kind of man he is willing to risk himself for.

Jelly’s Gold shows what Housewright can do with Minnesota legend

The sixth McKenzie novel revolves around supposedly missing gangster money. Treasure stories attract amateur hunters, professionals, criminals, and people convinced that one discovery could transform their lives.

The book stands out because the mystery is not simply who killed somebody. McKenzie first has to decide whether the legendary fortune exists, then understand why people around it are prepared to become violent.

The Last Kind Word puts McKenzie inside the people he usually investigates

McKenzie normally has the luxury of asking questions as an outsider. In The Last Kind Word, he goes undercover with a criminal family and has to maintain a false identity while deciding how much he can trust the people around him.

That shift changes the usual balance of the series. McKenzie cannot simply use his wealth and former police relationships from a safe distance because exposure would make him the immediate target.

The later McKenzie books keep finding unusual objects to build crimes around

Housewright does not rely solely on conventional murder setups. Several later mysteries begin with valuable or unusual objects that attract competing claims.

• The Curse of the Jade Lily: A valuable jade object creates disputes over theft and ownership.
• Stealing the Countess: Another rare object becomes valuable enough to motivate serious crime.
• Dead Man’s Mistress: Art and the death of its creator create competing financial interests.
• Them Bones: A stolen dinosaur skull turns scientific and collector value into a motive.

Fear the Reaper begins after McKenzie has already stopped the gunman

The central puzzle in Fear the Reaper is unusual because McKenzie has already intervened in the obvious act of violence. He takes down a man armed with an AR-15 at a small-town winery.

The unresolved question is whether the armed man intended a mass shooting, a targeted killing, or something else entirely. McKenzie therefore has to identify the intended victim, if there was one, before the threat can be considered over.

Housewright’s official site lists the novel for June 23, 2026. It is the twenty-third Rushmore McKenzie book and the newest released novel in the series as of this update.

McKenzie and Holland Taylor do not form one shared reading order

Both series occupy Minnesota crime-fiction territory and come from the same author, but there is no reason to alternate Taylor and McKenzie according to publication date.

The clean approach is to read each protagonist independently. Complete Taylor’s six books whenever you want the shorter sequence, and read McKenzie from A Hard Ticket Home through Fear the Reaper when you want the larger commitment.

Two Housewright books sit outside both detective series

1. The Devil and the Diva (with Renee Valois): A collaborative novel combining crime, relationships, ambition, and dark humor outside the Holland Taylor and Rushmore McKenzie continuities.
2. Finders Keepers: A younger-reader mystery built around the complications that follow when something valuable is found and other people decide they want it.

Housewright has also participated in shared and multi-author crime projects. Those contributions should remain separate from his two principal private-eye series.

A shorter McKenzie route for readers testing the series

1. A Hard Ticket Home: Establish McKenzie’s unusual status as a wealthy former cop who investigates by choice.
2. Madman on a Drum: Put his oldest friendships and childhood history at the center.
3. Jelly’s Gold: Read a Minnesota treasure mystery built around gangster legend.
4. The Last Kind Word: See McKenzie working undercover rather than from his usual position of independence.
5. Dead Man’s Mistress: Sample Housewright’s interest in art, money, and competing ownership claims.
6. Them Bones: Read a later mystery centered on a stolen dinosaur skull.
7. Fear the Reaper: Reach the current end of the series in 2026.

Where both Housewright series stand now

• Holland Taylor: Six novels through Girl in a Dumpster.
• Rushmore McKenzie: Twenty-three novels through Fear the Reaper.
• Newest Holland Taylor: Girl in a Dumpster, 2025.
• Newest Housewright novel: Fear the Reaper, 2026.

Housewright reading-order questions

What is David Housewright’s first novel?

Penance, published in 1995, was Housewright’s first novel and introduced Holland Taylor.

How many Holland Taylor novels are there?

There are six through Girl in a Dumpster.

How many Rushmore McKenzie novels are there?

There are twenty-three through Fear the Reaper.

Do the McKenzie books need to be read in order?

Most central mysteries can be followed independently, but publication order is preferable because McKenzie’s friendships, relationships, reputation, and history accumulate across more than twenty books.

Are Holland Taylor and McKenzie the same series?

No. They are separate private-eye series and can be read independently.

What is David Housewright’s newest book?

Fear the Reaper, published June 23, 2026, is the newest released Housewright novel as of September 2026.

The Housewright order that keeps things uncomplicated

For Holland Taylor, read the six books from Penance through Girl in a Dumpster in publication order despite the long gaps between installments. The returning books continue the same investigator rather than restarting him.

For Rushmore McKenzie, begin with A Hard Ticket Home and continue through Fear the Reaper. The individual mysteries vary widely, but McKenzie’s relationships and personal history become more valuable the longer you stay with the sequence.