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Highway 61 (2011)

by David Housewright(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

031264230X (ISBN13: 9780312642303)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Minotaur Books

series

Mac McKenzie

review 1: I am only slowly starting to read more in the detective/mystery genre, and read this because of an author visit to a local library and because it features locations that I am familiar with.I found this to be engaging, creating enough mystery and interest that I was willing to read each successive chapter, but not so engrossing that I couldn't wait to see what happened next.The premise of the Rushmore McKenzie series is that McKenzie is an ex-cop who received a great deal of money by solving a case, and no longer has to work for aliving. With all his free time, he does the occasional favor for friends, doing a little un-licensed private detective work.The reason McKenzie gets caught up in this particular case works just fine, and the web of deceit and connectiveness of the... more players all fits in nicely. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a problem with Rushmore McKanzie himself. While a decent person, he's not particularly loveable. Likeable, yes. But he's actually hard to root for, other than that we know he's the one who's ultimately going to solve the case.I think author David Housewright knows this. In this particular novel, McKenzie spend s a good deal of time expressing, to himself, how he's suddenly withholding evidence from the police, the very people he used to work with, and what kind of person does that make him out to be? This happens at least three times in this novel. And the answer, particularly in light of some other, I feel damning, infomration given to the reader, is that it makes him out to be not just an ex-cop, amateur ddective, it makes him out to be a vigilante.I was uncomfortable with the portrayal of some of the other police in this novel, as some were also made out to look an awful lot like purveyors of their own justice rather than lawmen. While we all want the really bad guys off the streets, and are even guiltily happy when they are killed, having our heroes go to those extremes makes them less than heroic.I'll try reading another one or two in the series, but this left me a little less than charmed.
review 2: this was a good book, read it in 2 days. it was about a retired cop who was a millionaire. he had a girlfriend who owned a bar and she had a daughter. the former husband was in trouble and teh former cop was only helping him cause of the girlfriends daughter. he got in a bunch of trouble, lots of people died, but it all worked out. it was a good book and i enjoyed it. kind of gory in spots, but the bad guys got what they deserved. less

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