A Hard Ticket Home

After almost a dozen years on the St. Paul Police force, Rushmore McKenzie knows he has no chance of promotion ever since he made a righteous killing using a gun that was not standard police issue. When he finds an embezzler and the money he stole, he quits the force. This makes him eligible to take the insurance company reward for the return of the money. He is now a wealthy unlicensed private eye taking cases that interest him.
Richard and Molly Carlson ask him to find their daughter Jamie who left years ago and never returned. Their younger daughter Stacy is dying of leukemia and her only hope is a bone marrow transplant. After a thorough search he locates Jamie who tells him she will get in touch with him after she tells her husband about the family he never knew she had. When he doesn't hear from her, he goes to her home only to find her murdered. Her husband and son are missing, but Jamie's parents want him to locate their grandson who might be a match for Stacy. The investigation turns deadlier when eight men connected to the case are murdered, some by McKenzie's hand.

McKenzie is smart, determined and ready to give his all to right wrongs and pursue justice. There's always room for one more true blue American hero! ( )

Faced with the possibility of having to turn in an embezzler and come away with nothing or leave the police department and collect a huge finders fee from the insurance company, St. Paul detective Rushmore MacKenzie chooses the latter. Now he works similar to Lawrence Block’s Scudder: he has no license but does things to help people. In this story he’s been hired to find the sister of a girl who needs a transplant. Jamie Carlson had left home at 18 (never satisfactorily explained) never to return, after graduating high school, and now they need to see if she’s a match for her younger sister, Stacy who needs a bone marrow transplant.

MacKenzie finds the sister quickly enough. She’s married, with a child, TC, to a used car salesman in St. Paul who is involved with a rather shadowy group of elite businessmen who all made their money selling at a discount. He tells her of the need to be tested for the transplant, and she agrees to go home but is viciously murdered before she can. Mac’s oldest friend is a homicide detective on the St. Paul police force and he’s working on a case that’s soon linked to Jamie’s death, not to mention the involvement of the ATF and FBI.

As with any first book in a series, there are some loose ends and the occasional requirement to suspend credulity (what Mac does with a concussion at the end of the book defies belief despite its explanation). Nevertheless, a good read.

I discovered Housewright after reading Penance, one of the Holland Taylor series. This new series, featuring Rushmore MacKenzie shows promise, and I’ve already started onTin City, second in the series. ( )

I like Rushmore McKenzie and his cast of friends. This is the first book in the McKenzie series and my attempt to get back in order after having read The Taking of Libbie South Dakota because of the title.

This book introduces McKenzie and builds the background I was missing in Libbie. Still, there was a bit more violence and death in this book than I usually want to deal with. However, it was not too over the top and I was able to enjoy the story and the mystery. I didn't have a clue what was going on -- this one twists and turns like a rattlesnake!

I'll be reading more in the series, I like spending time with the wise-cracking McKenzie and the mysteries are very well done. ( )