David Housewright

After taking down a man wielding an AR-15 a small town winery, Rushmore McKenzie has to find out who, if anyone, was the shooter's target before he, or someone else, tries again. Once a police detective in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rushmore McKenzie, after becoming an unexpected millionaire, now is an unlicensed private investigator, doing the occasional investigative favor. Off on a weekend getaway to northwestern Wisconsin, McKenzie, with a group of five, including his childhood friend and current police detective Bobby Dunston, stop off at a local winery. When a man walks up carrying an AR-15, which he raises, props the butt against his shoulder, and sights down the barrel - but before he can do anything, Bobby Dunston yells 'gun' and he and McKenzie take the man down. The would-be shooter was arrested, and normally, that would be the end of it. But Wisconsin is an open carry state and the police can't prove that the gunman was intended to do anything. But it does appear that he might have been looking for one specific target. And, if so, that person is not out of danger. Now, before the gunman is released, McKenzie decides to find out who was the real target and why, before it is too late.

Winner of the 1996 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. A PI in St. Paul, Minnesota, must clear his own name when the drunk driver who killed his wife is shot dead. Holland Taylor is comfortable in interrogation rooms. For years, the cold dark cells of the Minneapolis homicide squad were his turf, and with the help of his partner, he wrung confessions out of countless killers. But that was long ago. Tonight Taylor's on the other side of the desk. Tonight he's the suspect. Taylor's career in the department ended after his wife and daughter were killed in a drunk driving accident. The culprit, John Brown, was sentenced to a measly six years for vehicular manslaughter, and Taylor vowed bloody vengeance in front of open court. After a few months of freedom, Brown is shot dead, and Taylor, now a private investigator, is called in as the obvious suspect. He didn't kill John Brown, but he'll find out who did-even if it means tearing Minneapolis apart from the inside out. Critical Acclaim for PENANCE: "A surprisingly accomplished first novel with a likable every-man protagonist and a clever plot." -Booklist "Impressive tough guy sass...an intriguing, darkly pessimistic take on American politics and media." -Publishers Weekly "As long as authors like David Housewright build first novels as good as Edgar-winner Penance, readers will come." -The Armchair Detective

Rushmore McKenzie is a former cop, current millionaire, and an occasional unlicensed P. I. who does favors for friends. Yet he has reservations when the daughter of his girlfriend Nina Truhler asks him to help her father, Nina's ex-husband Jason Truhler, a man in serious trouble. En route to a Canadian blues festival on Highway 61, he met a girl, blacked out, and awoke hours later in a strange motel room with the girl's murdered body on the floor. Slipping away unnoticed and heading home, he thought he got away with it-until he started getting texts with photos of the body and demands for blackmail money he couldn't afford to pay. McKenzie soon discovers that Truhler was set up in a modified honey trap. But Truhler's version of events wasn't exactly the truth, either. And McKenzie soon finds himself trapped in the middle of a very serious game involving teenage prostitution with some of the most powerful men in the state on one side and some of the deadliest on the other. Critical Acclaim for HIGHWAY 61: "Rushmore McKenzie agrees to help Jason Truhler, the ex-husband of his lover, Nina Truhler, in Housewright's solid eighth novel featuring the Twin Cities ex-cop who occasionally does 'favors' for friends. Jason appears to be the victim of a variation on the badger game when he attended the Thunder Bay Blues Festival in Ontario. He woke the next morning in a cheap hotel room, naked, with a dead girl on the floor, lots of blood, and no memory-now he's being blackmailed for murder. Trying to unravel the scam leads McKenzie into a morass involving an Internet sex ring, drug dealers, a pair of thugs called Big Joe and Little Joe Stippel, arsonists called Backdraft and Bug, and some of the Twin Cities' most powerful people. The tenacious McKenzie bounces between cops, bad guys, and movers and shakers with a tenuous hold on legalities but a good grasp on ethics." - Publisher's Weekly "In his latest favor (see The Taking of Libbie, SD ), Rushmore McKenzie is at his best as he muses over the outcome of good intentions in a caper that is too close to home. The story line is fast-paced as the hero figures out the motel game, but unprepared for the truth about Truhler. Instead of case closed, McKenzie finds deadly felons with ugly intent and even more lethal powerhouses with uglier intent targeting him. Readers will think twice before venturing on Highway 61." - Mystery Gazette "As the title would suggest, this novel proves to be one of author David Housewright's most fast-paced endeavors. The author consistently creates top-grade, expertly written mysteries. There's much to like about the delectably smart-alecky Rushmore McKenzie and his insider's take on The Cities. He's the kind of guy whom many women would like to date, and whom many men would like to have as a friend. After all, he's big on the favors." -Shine from Yahoo

Rushmore McKenzie is a retired cop, an unexpected millionaire and, occasionally, an unlicensed private investigator. So, it isn't the biggest surprise in the world when he's attacked and kidnapped from his home-McKenzie has more than a few enemies out there with a grudge against him. But it is a surprise when it turns out his kidnapping is a case of mistaken identity. Bounty hunters grab McKenzie and take him to the small plains town of Libbie, South Dakota which just lost pretty much everything it had to a con man masquerading under McKenzie's name. Using a scam involving a planned new shopping mall, the grifter apparently emptied out the town's bank account before disappearing, leaving behind a devastated town full of people with many reasons to hate him. To that list of enemies, he's just added McKenzie who is now determined to catch the weasel besmirching his reputation. But the stolen money is just the tip of a deadly iceberg. McKenzie's manhunt soon reveals a web corruption that holds the entire town in its grip and threatens everything he holds dear. Critical Acclaim for THE TAKING OF LIBBIE, SD: "Edgar-winner Housewright nicely confounds readers' expectations in his absorbing seventh hard-boiled mystery featuring ex-cop and millionaire Rushmore McKenzie... Crisp prose and clever plot developments help the chapters fly by and should win this deserving author a wider audience." - Publishers Weekly "McKenzie, who describes himself as a 'knight-errant doing favors for friends' (he's a retired cop with a lot of money so he doesn't need a day job), makes a fine series lead, charmingly unlikable in a likable sort of way, and the stories are solid mysteries with a hint of humor. A very enjoyable series that deserves a wider audience." - Booklist Online

Homicide cop Bobby Dunston's daughter has been kidnapped, taken in broad daylight on a city street in the middle of September. The kidnappers demand a million dollars and force Dunston to get the ransom from his friend Rushmore McKenzie. It soon becomes apparent to both of them that one of the kidnappers is childhood pal Scottie, a once aspiring drummer now gone astray, and that the kidnapping is payback for "crimes" they committed in their past. Of course McKenzie, a former cop and now unlicensed P. I., handles the ransom drop-off and the child is returned safely. But Scottie is soon brutally murdered (maybe that's Mac's fault and maybe it isn't) and someone takes out an open contract on McKenzie, using his own money to pay for it. Dodging attempts on his life from assassins of all shapes and sizes, McKenzie now has precious little time to uncover the mastermind behind it all if he's going to survive. Critical Acclaim for MADMAN ON A DRUM: "Hate, revenge and old-fashioned greed propel Edgar-winner Housewright's stellar fifth mystery to feature former St. Paul, Minn., cop Rushmore McKenzie. Housewright's chivalric noir hero never fails to charm, whether mourning a St. Paul that's lost much of its colorful, if shady, past or busting a bestial dogfight entrepreneur out in the chilly countryside. Against a realistic Minnesota backdrop, this homage to Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer raises cutting questions about crime and punishment and today's price of friendship and loyalty. Of course, McKenzie knows it's all about money, but Housewright makes it so fresh and real it hurts." - Publishers Weekly , starred review "Housewright returns with another noir-tinged mystery starring St. Paul detective Rushmore McKenzie. Lots of narrative momentum and exciting scenes." - Booklist "McKenzie's subtle humor keeps the tension from boiling over, but don't expect any breaks in the action." - Minnesota Monthly

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 usually he isn't), McKenzie 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. McKenzie begins combing the backstreets of the Twin Cities, tracking down Jamie's last known associates only to discover that along with the expected pimps and drug dealers, Jamie was also a favorite of a violent street gang, arms smugglers, and Minnesota's moneyed elite. And as the body-count rises, he learns that what he's looking for-and why-are nothing like he had imagined. Critical Acclaim for A HARD TICKET HOME: "I didn't so much read A Hard Ticket Home as inhale it. What a wonderful time I had. The action is superb, and the tour of the Twin Cities is a delight. I love Rushmore McKenzie. He's heroic, foolish, clever, vulnerable-and unapologetically nice. One more hardback I shall have to buy every year." -Nevada Barr, author of Hunting Season "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... A true son of Spenser." -Publishers Weekly "The hero of this action-packed novel is very human: sometimes a smart aleck, sometimes sensitive and vulnerable-and more than capable of pulling the trigger. A surprise at every turn." -Dallas Morning Star "Millionaire ex-cop rights wrongs pro-bono in an amiable throwback to Marlowe/Archer. Housewright has a keeper in McKenzie-tough, smart and sufficiently flawed to be entirely likeable." -Kirkus Review "David Housewright's McKenzie (you want his first name and the story behind it, it's in the book) is a smartaleck, wisecracking, two-fisted, soft-hearted and very human addition to the PI field. Get to know him-you'll be glad you did." -S. J. Rozan, author of Winter and Night "David Housewright has written a stunning novel. His prose is bone hard and beautiful, his story brutally dark, undeniably compelling, and in odd, unpredictable moments, quite funny. This is a guy who knows the human soul, and he lays it bare on every page." -William Kent Krueger, author of Blood Hollow "Another winner from David Housewright. Private investigator 'Mac' McKenzie is the quintessential lone crusader, and A Hard Ticket Home is the perfect example of the Great Modern American Detective Novel. Fans of Robert B. Parker, John D. McDonald, and Ross MacDonald will love this book." -Pete Hautmann, author of Doohickey