Milo Rathkey

Private investigator Milo Rathkey returns to the shores of Lake Superior and his boyhood home Lakesong, where his mother had been the cook. This time around, he co-owns the estate with his benefactor's son Sutherland McKnight. Milo moves from following wayward spouses to solving murders. Sutherland refers to Milo's unusual way of thinking as mind lint, but it works.

Real estate magnet James Bonner is murdered in his office after his New Year's Eve Party. The widow has a long-standing grudge. The son has gambling debts, and a couple of low life thugs are hanging around. Why? Is it the kid's gambling debt or something more sinister? One-time cop turned private eye Milo Rathkey just had his life turned upside down. That's why he was invited to the party. That's why he talked with the soon to be corpse. And that's why the cops want him in on the investigation. Mary Alice it was a great party...sorry about the murder. 

The women of Thrana Hall are holding an all-school reunion. Classmate Jessica Vogel is hated by most of the attendees, but when she's pushed down the steps of an old spooky tower, Private Detective Milo Rathkey is pulled into the investigation. Is the murder tied to a fatal accident 12 years earlier, an old school grudge, or did the victim's penchant for blackmail get her killed?    

Former district attorney Patsy Rand collapses and dies at a mystery book club meeting. Before dying, she utters the word “yellow”. From that small clue, the mystery grows. The police ask former private investigator Milo Rathkey to consult on the case. The victim wrote a book years ago accusing a software guru of murder. The books are disappearing. Milo wonders if the book collector and the murderer are one and the same.

When two bodies are found on the back lawn of the Hawthorne estate, the police find private investigator Milo Rathkey already on the scene, dragged into the investigation by Mary Alice Bonner, who had hoped to use Hawthorne for her annual New Year’s Eve party. The dead are identified as a young couple who were touring their wedding venue the night before. The police think the bride-to-be was the target. Milo suspects the killer was after the groom. All Mary Alice Bonner knows is that it’s hard to plan a party with bodies on the lawn.

Milo Rathkey is spending a quiet January in his Duluth mansion, Lakesong - too quiet. Then Charlie Dawson is murdered while riding an exercise bike. The police want to know who rigged the bike to electrocute Charlie. Milo wonders why Charlie died on a Tuesday.

Why would someone buy seven ugly winter hats in May? Police Consultant Milo Rathkey wanted to know, but the buyer told him to mind his own business. Milo would have forgotten all about it if the Hat Man hadn't been found floating facedown in a nearby river.

The body of a young woman is found in a spooky old farmhouse on the outskirts of Duluth. She came back to town to claim her inheritance, but that took a wrong turn. Who killed her? And whose body is buried in the barn? Police Consultant Milo Rathkey keeps saying it’s not what you see, it’s what you don’t see.