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Mac McKenzie Books in Order

Part ofDavid Housewright Books in Order

Browse the Mac McKenzie novels by David Housewright in order, with brief plot summaries, Twin Cities series background and suggestions on where new readers should jump in.

Last updated: January 17, 2026

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Publication Order

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22 books

1

Them Bones

by David Housewright

2025

When a grad student's dinosaur dig in Montana is raided and an extremely rare Ankylosaurus skull disappears, the case lands in Mac's lap through a friend. Tracking a fossil worth millions on the black market, he faces ruthless collectors and criminals who will do anything to keep the bones.

2

Man in the Water

by David Housewright

2024

On the first boating day of the season, Nina Truhler finds the body of Army veteran E. J. Woods floating at a St. Croix River marina. Officials call it suicide or an accident, but when his daughter insists he was murdered, Mac dives into dockside feuds, buried war trauma and secrets the family would rather forget.

3

In a Hard Wind

by David Housewright

2023

Jeanette Carrell stands accused of murdering a developer who allegedly tricked her elderly friend with dementia into signing away pristine land, and every scrap of evidence points her way. Convinced there is more to the story, Mac takes the case and uncovers land deals, grudges and disappearances that make her calm insistence on innocence even stranger.

4

Something Wicked

by David Housewright

2022

Trying to honor Nina's request that he retire, Mac still agrees to look into Jenness Crawford's suspicion that someone murdered her grandmother in a family owned castle resort. Trapped with feuding heirs, long serving staff and at least one killer, he must read the room before he becomes the next victim.

5

What Doesn't Kill Us

by David Housewright

2021

Moments after leaving a neighborhood bar, Mac is shot in the back and left in a coma. While he hovers between life and death, friends, cops and former foes retrace his last case involving a wealthy tech family, drug dealers and a mysterious woman who may have brought the bullet with her.

6

From the Grave

by David Housewright

2020

At a public reading, a psychic medium claims the spirit of robber Leland Hayes is offering to reveal where missing heist money lies if someone kills McKenzie. Pulled into a world of competing mediums and reality television, Mac must decide what to believe while others chase the cash and his head.

7

Dead Man's Mistress

by David Housewright

2019

Once notorious as the young muse in a famous painter's erotic canvases, Louise Wykoff asks Mac to track a cache of Randolph McInnis paintings stolen from her barn. Following the missing art north toward Lake Superior, Mac uncovers family grudges, forgeries and people willing to kill for a masterpiece.

8

Like to Die

by David Housewright

2018

A simple favor for a hockey buddy introduces Mac to Erin Peterson, driven owner of the Salsa Girl food company, whose factory locks are being sabotaged with glue. As the harassment escalates to threats against her business and life, Mac uncovers rivals, debts and lies Erin has not shared.

9

What the Dead Leave Behind

by David Housewright

2017

At his stepdaughter Erica's request, Mac looks into the unsolved stabbing of her friend's father, killed in a suburban park a year earlier. His questions link that cold case to another suspicious death and a tight group of college friends whose alibis no longer look so solid.

10

Stealing the Countess

by David Housewright

2016

Violinist Paul Duclos begs Mac to help ransom his stolen Stradivarius, the Countess Borromeo, even if it means paying thieves under the table. As Mac pursues the missing instrument, he clashes with local police, insurers, the FBI's art crime unit and dangerous players who see the violin as leverage.

11

Unidentified Woman #15

by David Housewright

2015

During a winter storm, Mac watches a truck dump a bound woman onto a Twin Cities freeway, triggering a massive pileup but sparing her life. With the victim suffering total amnesia, he shelters her and hunts for her identity, the people who hurt her and the reason they want her dead.

12

The Devil May Care

by David Housewright

2014

Riley Brodin, granddaughter of a wealthy Minneapolis power broker, calls Mac when her new boyfriend vanishes, leaving behind a rented mansion and a life built on lies. Following the trail of Juan Carlos Navarre puts Mac between ruthless criminals and a family that would rather bury its scandals.

13

The Last Kind Word

by David Housewright

2013

Mac agrees to go undercover for the ATF, infiltrating a small crew of rural robbers to find a cache of stolen guns near the Canadian border. Playing the part of a career criminal, he walks a razor thin line between the gang, law enforcement and his own uneasy conscience.

14

Curse of the Jade Lily

by David Housewright

2012

An insurance company asks Mac to act as go between after a priceless jade artifact is stolen from a Minneapolis museum and offered back for ransom. The so called cursed Lily attracts spies, thieves and federal agents, and before long the recovery effort turns deadly.

15

Highway 61

by David Housewright

2011

At Nina Truhler's request, Mac looks into her ex husband Jason, who claims he woke up beside a murdered woman after a blues festival road trip. The deeper Mac digs into the supposed one night stand, the more he uncovers blackmail, online vice and powerful men with plenty to hide.

16

The Taking of Libbie, SD

by David Housewright

2010

Abducted by angry residents of a South Dakota town, Mac learns a con man used his name to steal their savings with a fake development scheme. To clear himself, he agrees to find the impostor, exposing small town grudges, political corruption, and a very personal motive for revenge.

17

Jelly's Gold

by David Housewright

2009

Graduate students bring Mac a legend about gangster Frank “Jelly” Nash and millions in stolen gold hidden somewhere in St. Paul. The treasure hunt quickly turns violent, and Mac must outmaneuver thugs, collectors and a mysterious woman named Heavenly while chasing both the gold and a killer.

18

Madman on a Drum

by David Housewright

2008

When homicide chief Bobby Dunston's young daughter is kidnapped, the abductors demand ransom money from his friend Mac McKenzie. The girl comes home, but a childhood buddy is murdered and a contract is placed on Mac, forcing him to face old sins and relentless killers.

19

Dead Boyfriends

by David Housewright

2007

After Mac stops a rookie cop from roughing up Merodie Davies at a grisly crime scene, he lands in jail and then on her defense team. Investigating the death of her lover, he discovers a disturbing pattern of dead boyfriends and a brutally dangerous man still in her life.

20

Pretty Girl Gone

by David Housewright

2006

Mac's old flame is now Minnesota's first lady, and she fears an anonymous email accusing the governor of murder will destroy his career. Digging into a decades old death in a small hometown, Mac stirs up jealousies, secrets, and a town that would rather forget the past.

21

Tin City

by David Housewright

2005

A favor for his father's old Marine buddy sends Mac McKenzie to a honey farm where the bees are mysteriously dying. After the beekeeper is executed and a threatening neighbor vanishes, Mac goes underground, dodging federal agents and thugs to uncover a toxic conspiracy.

22

A Hard Ticket Home

by David Housewright

2004

Ex St. Paul cop Rushmore “Mac” McKenzie agrees to help a friend whose nine year old daughter needs a bone marrow transplant from the sister who ran away years ago. His search for the missing girl drags him through the Twin Cities underworld and into a deadly family reckoning.

Series background & context

Rushmore “Mac” McKenzie begins his series as an ex detective from the St. Paul police who no longer needs a paycheck. A windfall settlement turned him into an unlikely millionaire, so he works as an unlicensed private investigator, taking the cases that interest him or that land in his lap as favors for friends.

In A Hard Ticket Home he agrees to look for a runaway teen whose bone marrow might save her little sister, a search that drags him from backstreet dives to boardrooms and forces ugly truths out into the open. Tin City starts with a simple favor for an aging beekeeper whose hives are mysteriously dying and escalates into murder, federal attention, and a dangerous undercover run when Mac discovers a neighbor tied to organized crime. By Pretty Girl Gone and Dead Boyfriends, he is juggling old relationships, political scandal, and a damaged woman with a trail of dead men in her wake.

The middle of the series shows just how far his sense of obligation will stretch. In Madman on a Drum he helps his friend, homicide cop Bobby Dunston, when Dunston's daughter is kidnapped and a childhood buddy appears to be involved, only to discover a murder contract placed on his own head. Jelly's Gold sends him chasing a legendary Depression era stash of stolen bullion around St. Paul while a modern killer prowls nearby, and The Taking of Libbie, SD finds him kidnapped by an entire town that has been conned by a grifter using his name.

Wherever he goes, Mac tends to stir up buried grudges, old money, and people who are much more dangerous than they first appear.

Later books keep building out his circle of cops, crooks, and family, especially his partner and eventual wife Nina Truhler and his stepdaughter Erica. Highway 61 pulls him into a blackmail scheme tied to Nina's ex husband and a dead girl at a Canadian blues festival, while Curse of the Jade Lily and Stealing the Countess pit him against thieves, collectors, and governments over a cursed jade artifact and a stolen Stradivarius violin. Cases like What the Dead Leave Behind, Like to Die, and Dead Man's Mistress shift the focus to cold cases, workplace sabotage, and missing artwork on the North Shore, all while Mac tries, and often fails, to keep things from getting personal.

From the Grave and What Doesn't Kill Us dig into the long shadows cast by an armored car robbery and a shooting that leaves Mac in a coma, forcing his friends on both sides of the law to retrace his steps. The most recent novels, including Something Wicked, In a Hard Wind, Man in the Water, and Them Bones, move from disputed family castles to small town murder trials, suspicious drownings, and a stolen dinosaur skull, proving that even retirement does not keep trouble from finding him.

What ties the Mac McKenzie books together is not just the clever crimes but a wry, first person voice and a vivid sense of Minnesota as a place where favors, loyalties, and grudges are never entirely settled.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 22 Mac McKenzie Books in Order (Complete List 2026)