2011 Minnesota Book Award Nominee

A grifter cons an entire town using McKenzie's name, leaving the real McKenzie facing an angry town with nothing left to lose.

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, l eaving 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.

REVIEWS

"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

"Housewright jumps right into the story in his seventh Rushmore McKenzie mystery: it opens with two men breaking into McKenzie’s Minnesota house, zapping him with a Taser, throwing him into the trunk of a car, and transporting him several hundred miles to, of all places, Libbie, South Dakota. Once there, they discover they got the wrong guy: they’re looking for a con man who used McKenzie’s name and identity to bilk the town of Libbie out of a lot of money. Believe it or not—and McKenzie can scarcely believe it—the abductors then ask the abductee to help them out by finding the con man and bringing him to justice. 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

"Not many recurring mystery protagonists win over the reader the way Rushmore McKenzie does, and not many mystery writers possess the sylistic wherewithal and storytelling abilities of St. Paul, Minnesota, author David Housewright... Housewright commences what amounts to a modern-day Western, complete with saloon fights, scarlet women (some with hearts of gold), outlaws, bullies, an imposing sheriff, and the big bad dude who aims to be the boss of everyone, on account of he pretty well owns the town. The book's title even sounds like that of a Western, and Housewright takes the story to John Ford heights... This can't-put-it-down novel would make a winning gift for Father's Day, or for any mystery lover (well, lover of mysteries) in your life."
--Shine from Yahoo