A HARD TICKET HOME

Millionaire ex-cop rights wrongs pro bono in an amiable throwback to Marlowe/Archer.

So what if the fat wad in McKenzie’s exchequer is somewhat tainted? It’s his pure heart that matters. Consider the case of the Carlsons, who came to him because of their daughter Jamie, who went missing seven years ago, just after graduating from high school. Now their younger daughter Stacy, diagnosed with leukemia, is down to her last hope—a bone-marrow transplant from a compatible donor who just might be Jamie. The Carlsons know McKenzie often succeeds when St. Paul police can’t, so will he please search for Jamie? The knight-errant buckles down but soon runs into big-time obstacles. It’s not that Jamie is difficult to track. It’s that through the years a good many other nefarious types have also tracked her just as easily and are increasingly nervous about McKenzie’s efforts. Suddenly finding himself item one on a variety of dubious agendas, he acquires the obligatory bumps and bruises. McKenzie will crack his case and the Carlsons find their donor, though neither in quite the way the clues seem to be pointing.

Housewright (Dearly Departed, 1999, etc.) has a keeper in McKenzie—tough, smart, and sufficiently flawed to be entirely likable.