David Housewright, Tin City

David Housewright, Tin City - 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 soil 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 storyline 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.

St. Martin's , May 2005, $23.95, 288 pp.

ISBN: 0312321511

Harriet Klausner