PRETTY GIRL GONE

Smart, tough, very rich ex-cop-turned-knight-errant McKenzie (Tin City, 2005, etc.) is back to perform more boons for friends, this time the governor’s lady.

Thanks to a big windfall, Rushmore McKenzie never again has to punch a clock, and when he punches bad guys, it’s strictly pro bono or pro chivalry. The current lady in distress is Lindsey Barrett, who, before she became “the most attractive first lady in the history of Minnesota,” was Lindsey Bauer, the cherished, slightly older woman in McKenzie’s adolescent life. An ugly e-mail has informed Mrs. Barrett that her husband is a killer, that the victim was his high-school sweetheart, that a massive cover-up protected him, but that if he chooses to run for the U.S. Senate, exposure will follow PDQ. Lies, cruel and outrageous, she swears to McKenzie, begging him for friendship’s sake to find the villain behind them. Mounting his white charger, the gallant knight directs it toward the picture-book town of Victoria, scene of the alleged crime. There he encounters the predictable small-town jealousies, pent-up resentments and closely guarded secrets. The thing that’s unexpected and unsettling in the extreme is how many Victorians really believe John Barrett is a murderer.

Housewright does his usual creditable job. Nothing to hate here and nothing to phone a friend about.