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A Hard Ticket Home (Mac McKenzie Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

David Housewright (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)


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Book Description

March 2006 Mac McKenzie Mysteries
Ex-St. Paul cop Rushmore McKenzie has more time, and more money, than he knows what to do with. In fact, when he's willing to admit it to himself (and he usually isn't), Mac is downright bored. Until he decides to do a favor for a friend facing a family tragedy: Nine-year-old Stacy Carlson has been diagnosed with leukemia, and the only one with the matching bone marrow that can save her is her older sister, Jamie. Trouble is, Jamie ran away from home years ago.

Mac begins combing the backstreets of the Twin Cities, tracking down Jamie's last known associates. He starts with the expected pimps and drug dealers, but the path leads surprisingly to some of the Cities' most respected businessmen, as well as a few characters far more unsavory than the street hustlers he anticipated. As bullets fly and bodies drop, Mac persists, only to find that what he's looking for, and why, are not exactly what he'd imagined.

David Housewright's uncanny ability to turn the Twin Cities into an exotic, brooding backdrop for noir fiction, and his winning, witty hero Rushmore McKenzie, serve as a wicked one-two punch in A Hard Ticket Home, a series debut that reinforces Housewright's well-earned reputation as one of crime fiction's rising stars.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Housewright's first mystery series (for which he won an Edgar) about Holland Taylor, a former St. Paul cop who became a smart-talking private eye, trickled out after three books. His new series is about Rushmore McKenzie, a former St. Paul cop who becomes a smart-talking (albeit unlicensed) private eye. What makes them different? Not all that much. The earlier series was perhaps a bit harder-edged: Taylor left the force after he was accused of murdering the drunk driver who killed his wife and child, while McKenzie's motives for going private involve a sudden cash windfall when he captures a wanted swindler. And many chuckles are generated by McKenzie's first name (he was conceived on a trip to Mt. Rushmore), which is why he prefers to be called Mac. But basically McKenzie is the same kind of genial doofus his predecessor was, a true son of Spenser who tells us in great detail about every Pig's Eye beer he drinks and every opera record he plays. The author has a sharp, bouncy prose style, and his story—about Mac's search for a friend's long-missing daughter who can possibly be a bone marrow donor for her younger sister—has some touching and exciting moments. But Housewright has been shopping for interesting character traits at the same store for too long, and there's nothing here to show that a series about McKenzie will be any different—or any more successful—than the one about Taylor.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In a captivating opening sequence, St. Paul cop Rushmore McKenzie comes into some unexpected income, allowing him to retire from the force and leave the mean streets for a kinder, gentler tax bracket. But when the pro bono search for a runaway who may be a viable donor for her ailing little sister turns grisly, he brashly tangles with a savage serial killer and some nasty gangsters with unlimited ordnance. As Housewright churns the action, enlarging on Raymond Chandler's advice to "bring on a man with a gun," his hero is stretched a little thin between the decent fellow who feeds ducks and muses on his deceased dad's advice and the reckless vigilante with a taste for revenge--a lack of focus not offset by McKenzie's tiresome tendency to share his musical tastes at every turn. Still, many readers will find him more sympathetic than the lead of the author's Holland Taylor books, with enough of Travis McGee's stoic charm to make this a series worth watching. A good buy for larger mystery collections. David Wright
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 326 pages
  • Publisher: Leisure Books (March 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 084395681X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0843956818
  • Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A reformed newspaper reporter and ad man, Housewright's book "Penance" (Foul Play Press) earned the 1996 Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and was nominated for a Shamus in the same category by the Private Eye Writers of America. "Practice to Deceive" won the 1998 Minnesota Book Award (it is currently being developed as a feature film) and "Jelly's Gold" won the same prize in 2010. His 12th novel -- "Curse of the Jade Lily" -- will be published in June 2012 (St. Martin's Press Minotaur). All of Housewright's books are now available on Kindle. Housewright's short stories have appeared in several anthologies including "Silence of the Loons," "Twin Cities Noir," "Resort to Murder," and "Once Upon A Crime" and publications as diverse as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and True Romance. Website: www.davidhousewright.com. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Author Should be HouseHold Name, January 3, 2007
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This review is from: A Hard Ticket Home (Mac McKenzie Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
As others have mentioned, this author should get more press and marketing than he does. His stories are different in such a good way. His characterizations are real, his sense of humor is tops and his stories have diversity. I would also like to thank Amazon for introducing me to this author. I liked the Holland Taylor stories and would like to see him trade off between the two. I would recommend reading just one of his books and you will be hooked...
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than much of what's out there, December 24, 2006
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I have been impressed with David Housewright's writing since his debut novel, Penance, appeared some years ago. From what I've heard elsewhere, I was one of the few who liked it, but that sort of thing has never bothered me in the past. He had one character there, an ex-cop named Holland Taylor, and he's started a second character here, another ex-cop named Rushmore "Mac" Mackenzie. Mac's a regular sort of guy, except that while a cop he managed to find an embezzler everyone else was looking for, and collect the reward for being the guy who tracked the fugitive down. This led to his being on the outs with his police department, so he quit. Now he occasionally helps people in trouble, though of course he's not a licensed investigator or anything.

In the current book, he's hired to find a woman who ran away from her parents just after she turned 18. They haven't seen her since, and her younger sister has developed leukemia. Neither of the parents are acceptable donors, but a daughter might be, so off Mac goes, looking for her. Soon, people are shooting at him, women coming on to him, and the dead bodies and confusing plot twists are piling up.

This is a very good mystery, perhaps Housewright's best. The plot's logical and everything connects. The suspects are all believable, the crimes are things that at least could happen, and the solution to everything is satisfying. I would recommend this book.
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5.0 out of 5 stars So well written - very entertaining, January 25, 2012
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This review is from: A Hard Ticket Home (Hardcover)
I have just 'discovered' this author and am thouroughly hooked.

His writing style is wry and amsuing and the main character Mac is interesting. The characters are easy to follow and I like the thought processes and humor that is thrown in. Very clever.

I am really enjoying this author and can't wait to find more of his books.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
David Housewright, Merci Cole, Family Boyz, Napoleon Cook, David Bruder, Bradley Young, Twin Cities, Paul Police Department, Katherine Katzmark, Grand Rapids, Richard Carlson, Anthony Village, Nina Truhler, Bobby Dunston, Jamie Bruder, Jamie Carlson, Warren Casselman, Minnesota Club, Hennepin County, Ramsey County, Little Stacy, Molly Carlson, Geno Belloti, Highland Park, Good Deal Dave
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