Housewright, David - A HARD TICKET HOME

[LJ Roberts]

A HARD TICKET HOME (Unlicensed Sleuth/Former Cop-Minnesota-Cont) – VG David Housewright -
Standalone (or 1^st of series, I hope)
St. Martin’s Minatour, 2004- Hardcover

Former policeman Rushmore McKenzie has enough money that he doesn’t need to work, but he likes helping people. He agrees to look for Jamie Carlson in hopes that she might be a bone marrow match for her younger sister. But a simple search turns much more dangerous as McKenzie becomes a target for murder and others start dying around him.

Having lately bemoaned the lack of strong, ethical-but-not-perfect protagonists, I’ve found one in McKenzie. When an embezzler offers him half the money, he chooses to quit the Force, turn the crook in and collect the reward money; he becomes angry at his best friend thinking of having an affair, and he berates himself in alphabetic order “Ass. Bastard. Creep…” This is a fast-moving book with excellent descriptions and dialogue, although a little weak on the secondary characters. But I was late for work because of not being able to put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed this and have ordered all this other books.