Tin City

By David Housewright

Book Overview

Mac McKenzie is rich. So rich that he's left his job as a Twin Cities police officer and spends his time doing favors large and small for friends. So when an old Marine buddy of his father's calls with a request Mac takes the time to help him out. And it is one of the stranger favors he's ever been asked: the elderly Mr. Mosley, a beekeeper, wants Mac to find out why his bees are suddenly dying in droves.

Mac does some digging and before long turns up a hornet's nest of trouble in the person of Frank Crosetti, a new neighbor on the property abutting Mosley's bees. What started out as an innocent investigation into some unregulated pesticide quickly turns lethal. Crosetti sticks around long enough to make some very specific threats, then disappears into the wind leaving behind a vicious rape, a lifeless body, and a very angry McKenzie bursting for someone to blame.

With only the faintest of trails to follow and a suspicious group of federal agents gunning for him, Mac dives underground, taking only a stash of cash and a small arsenal with him on his undercover mission. Before long Mac's deep in the forgotten corners of Minneapolis sniffing for any sign of Crosetti, unable to rest until he gets results.

Praise for TIN CITY:

"Channeling Raymond Chandler with tongue-in-cheek humor, Housewright delivers plenty of action, a pinch of romance and more than a few surprises." --Publisher's Weekly

"This is a novel about going after the right guy for the wrong reasons, and the wrong guy for the right reasons. It's got twists and double-crosses, exciting car chases and gun battles, leavened by plenty of laughs --a noirish novel with emphasis on the ish." --Boston Globe

"Housewright hits his stride in this second outing for good-hearted Minnesota tough guy Rushmore McKenzie... The smooth, straightforward action comes off without a hitch, lightly seasoned with a dash of introspection from a wry, self-assured hero who is a true pal to those in need and who charms ladies and librarians alike... This series may be seriously habit-forming. It's also a welcome selection for libraries where Robert Parker is popular, which is to say everywhere." --Booklist

"Some lovely cadenced writing... along with smart narrative moves and bits of unfocused excess. Housewright is at his best when he stays closest to home. It's clear he's a Minnesotan in his bones, so his depiction of everything from beekeeping to the byways of Hilltop embeds us in a location where quiet indiscretions and desires highlight daily life... The author thickens the broth with big-city crime (New York City gang wars), national issues (terrorism and a frenzied FBI agent) and more than a showoff's worth of country-western music name-dropping. The result is an amiable and appealing novel..." --Washington Post

"Tin City is a nicely crafted combination of procedural and character-driven crime story... It's fun for readers to share McKenzie's travels." --St. Paul Pioneer Press

"Housewright is one of a crop of Minnesota crime writers whose new books draw on the state's personality quirks and beloved landmarks to flavor spine-tingling prose. Readers beware: It's not all snow cones and mini-doughnuts. Even as you smile with familiarity, you'll be looking over your shoulder... Mac is a likable protagonist. He's normal in a refreshing way that is rare among today's angst-ridden heroes. He should wear well as this series continues." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1643960180
• ISBN13: 9781643960180
• Release Date: June 2019
• Publisher: Down & Out Books
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Tin City

This book was great. I love the main character, Mac McKenzie. The writing style of the author reminds me of Robert Parker of the "Spenser" novels. To go further back in time, McKenzie reminds me of Shell Scott in the Richard Prather books of old. Great story, great characters, good read. I highly reccomend this book to anyone that just wants to enjoy a fun book.

Tin City

I just cannot lay down a Housewright novel, Tin City is no exception. A very good read.

A great second book.

Mac is one of my favorite characters; he's likable, loyal, ethical, and conscious of the price of violence, and there is violence. The story is tight, suspenseful, has great dialogue and grabs you from page one. Simply put, Housewright is a excellent writer who has created a great series. Start at the beginning and enjoy.

Excellent Follow-Up Novel

This is the second book in a new series focused on Rushmore "Mac" McKenzie, who used to be a St. Paul policeman, but retired after collecting a $3 million bounty on an embezzler. Now, he does the occasional "favor" for his friends and otherwise takes it pretty easy. At the start of _Tin City_, Mac gets a call from Mr. Mosley, an old friend of his father's, who is a beekeeper and wants Mac's help figuring out why an unusually large number of his bees have been dying off lately. Mac calls in a favor from a friend in the entomology department at the University of Minnesota and it's not too long before the friend's graduate teaching assistant has tracked down the source of a pesticide being sprayed on a neighboring property, which is drifting over to Mosley's hives and killing his bees. When the teaching assistant calls in and reports being shot at, Mac and Mosley hurriedly drive to the scene to offer their assistance. At the scene, they're confonted by a man holding a shotgun and telling them they're trespassing. They leave, only to involve one of Mac's other friends, a lawyer, by having him send a threatening letter to the property's owner. From there, events suddenly turn violent--Mosley is killed and the lawyer's wife is assaulted, leaving Mac a very angry man who must get to the bottom of things and track down the man responsible. This was an excellent book, with its settings and locations around the Twin Cities brought to convincing life. Much of the story takes place in a tiny municipality called Hilltop, the "tin city" of the title, which is an actual place, a city of mobile homes completely surrounded by the larger city of Columbia Heights. Mac pretends to be a writer for _Trailer Life_ magazine and interviews several of the residents, allowing Housewright to include some fascinating historical details about this real place (I checked my Twin Cities street atlas just to make sure, and sure enough, there is a Hilltop, right where Housewright says it is). Along the way, Mac falls in love with Penelope Glass, a song writer and the neglected wife of a rogue FBI agent. The scenes describing their conversations and a dinner they have together have a real sweetness to them. Mac finds himself in the middle of a complicated mess, involving a mobster on the run from a botched assassination attempt in New York and a couple of local gangster wanna-be's, and things are complicated further when the FBI agent places a locate and detain order for him, requiring Mac to go underground. Mac's an appealing character, with lots of friends in high and low places. His loyalty to his friends and willingness to do what it takes to make things right, as well as his thoughts on his deceased father and the hand Mr. Mosley had in bringing him up to be a "good guy," and the uncertainty he feels when he gets some measure of vengeance, make him a pretty complicated character. _Tin City_ is an excellent follow-up to the very strong _A Hard Ticket Home_ and,

intriguing private investigator (though Mac is unlicensed) t

In Norwood Young America, wealthy former St. Paul cop Rushmore "Mac" McKenzie's elderly neighbor Mr. Mosley tries to hand to him three dead honeybees, but Mac refuses to touch them; Mosley calls him a wimp. Mosley further explains that last year he lost a fifth of his bee population and so far this year a third. He wants Mac to determine what is killing his bees. Mac will do anything for the man who served with his dad during the Korean War except touch bees. Mac and Mosley visit the only new "neighbor" Frank Crosetti, who greets them with a shotgun. Yesterday he fired at a visiting University of Minnesota coed who was taking soils samples seeking evidence of an insecticide Sevin XLR Plus, which apparently is killing the honeybees. A "Suit" tells the two visitors they are trespassing and must leave. Not long afterward, Crosetti rapes Mac's friend Susan Tillman and threatens her daughter next if Mac fails to back off. At about the same time Mosley takes two bullets to the head. Law enforcement and friends blame Mac who finds Crosetti is gone, but not forgotten. Mac searches the dregs of the Gopher State to bring Crosetti to justice if he does not kill him first, but also wants to know the reason why all this happened. TIN CITY is an intriguing private investigator (though Mac is unlicensed) tale that will keep fans hooked yet struggling to figure out Crosetti's motive. The story line is action-packed taking off from the moment of the first visit and never slowing down as cops hunt for Mac while he hunts for Crosetti. In his second Mac mystery (see Hard Ticket Home), David Housewright provides a fabulously dark Minnesota Noir. Harriet Klausner