ARC Review: Them Bones by David Housewright

Them Bones
Author: David Housewright
Series: Twin Cities P.I. Mac McKenzie Novels, Book 22)
Publication: Minotaur Books (June 24, 2025)

Description: A stolen dinosaur skull is at the center of a complex mystery laid at the feet of unofficial P.I. Rushmore McKenzie.

There are two things that Rushmore McKenzie hates to turn down―a request from a friend and a challenge. Both of them show up in his wife's nightclub in the person of Angela Bjork, who has come to request McKenzie's help. McKenzie, once a homicide detective, now through a series of unlikely events, is a retired millionaire. But occasionally, for friends, he will do some unofficial private detective work. Over the years, he's hunted down a stolen Stradivarius, the hoard of 1930's gangster, and recovered a stolen, apparently cursed, artifact but McKenzie never imagined a case like this. An exceedingly rare dinosaur skull has been stolen.

Angela, a doctoral candidate, was out on a dig site in Southeastern Montana, when she found a skeleton of an Ankylosaurus. And no sooner than when the skull was removed and placed on a truck then they were attacked, the truck and skull stolen. Worried that nothing is being done to find the stolen skull, she turns to McKenzie. Worth millions on the black market, the chance to recover it becomes fainter by the day. And the people behind the theft are likely willing to do anything, to anyone, to hold onto it.

My Thoughts: This is the 22nd book in the Twin Cities P.I. Mac McKenzie Novels. It is the first of the series that I've read. I was attracted to the Twin Cities setting but quickly came to enjoy McKenzie's personality.

McKenzie is a former cop turned millionaire to unofficial private investigator. When a young woman shows up at his wife's nightclub asking for help, he is willing and intrigued. It seems Angela Bjork is a paleontologist who has come to McKenzie to ask him to help him recover the skull of an Ankylosaurus that she and some others from the University of Minnesota, Macalester, and the Science Museum of Minnesota discovered in Montana. 

The local police don't seem to be doing anything useful, and the FBI isn't interested because the skull was found on private land. The land is owned by a Twin Cities millionaire who wants the skull recovered and donated to the museum before he dies. McKenzie finds himself working for the millionaire and trying to find out who took the skull and where it might be. 

I enjoyed the setting. I liked McKenzie's circle of friends. I liked the references to earlier cases which made me very curious about them. Fans of the series will enjoy this episode. This newbie found the story engaging and hard to put down. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.