Jelly's Gold

March 30, 2009
In Edgar-winner Housewright's enjoyable sixth novel to feature PI Rushmore “Mac†McKenzie (after 2008's Madman on a Drum
), graduate student Ivy Flynn, last seen in 2005's Tin City
, and her new boyfriend believe gold from a 1933 bank robbery engineered by Frank “Jelly†Nash is still hidden somewhere in St. Paul, Minn. When Mac agrees to investigate, it becomes apparent others are after the same pot of gold, now worth at least $8 million. The searchers consult historical archives and private letters, interview descendants of crooks and bigwigs, and even manage to locate one ancient ex-con who knew Nash. Readers get a dual treat as the likable Mac deals with a parade of present-day sharpies and gold hunters, while Housewright retells the story of the wholesale corruption that for decades made St. Paul a playground for a who's who of gangsters, including John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and others who hobnobbed with St. Paul's upper crust.

May 15, 2009
Ex-cop Rushmore McKenzie races assorted lowlifes in a rush for ill-gotten gold.

Poor Frank Nash. The criminal also known as Jelly masterminded a really cool bank heist in 1933 Minnesota, netting $8 million in gold bars, and then, before he had time to spend it, got rubbed out gangland style. Which means, of course, that somewhere in St. Paul there's buried treasure. At least that's the story told to McKenzie, the one-time cop that an insurance windfall converted into a millionaire. The storytellers are the lovely Ivy Flynn and her unlovely lover Josh Berglund, to whom McKenzie takes an instant dislike. Still, Ivy's an old chum, a very pretty old chum. And as followers of this series (Dead Boyfriends, 2007, etc.) know, McKenzie is ever susceptible. Moreover, his brand of retirement needs the tang of a big-time project now and then. So he agrees to help, though it's not absolutely clear to him why he's being cut in until a murder makes him realize that his partners aren't alone in the hunt. Bad guys who mean business are in the mix too, and whether he likes it or not, McKenzie has hired on as muscle. So is Jelly's treasure fool's gold, or is it really hidden somewhere, gathering gold dust while it waits to be found?

A clever entertainment driven by an amiable protagonist—Housewright's best in quite a while.

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Starred review from May 1, 2009
St. Paul, Minnesota, was a haven for Prohibition-era gangstersauthorities at that time gave all kinds of bootleggers, safecrackers, and thugs protection and privileges. As long as they refrained from committing crimes within the city limits, they could travel across the Mississippi to Minneapolis for their high jinks. In his sixth McKenzie mystery, Housewright brings alive this era by focusing on one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the time: the theft of 32 bars of gold bullion by 1930s bank robber Frank Jelly Nash from a bank in Huron, South Dakota, before he was killed in the Kansas City Massacre. McKenzie, a St. Paul cop who retired after winning a $3-million insurance reward for catching an embezzler, is freelancing as a private eye when a case intrigues him. Two University of Minnesota grad students in history contact McKenzie, saying they have proof that Nashs missing bullion, now worth more than $8 million, is buried in St. Paul. Housewright not only writes a compelling historical mystery here but also engages in reconstructive history, using contemporary accounts to trace Nashs movements in 1933. He also employs a nifty device to bring the history into the novel, careening between McKenzie and other seekers of the prize and Nashs own words cast into fictional form. Readers will learn a great deal of fascinating information, including the fact that Nashs nickname Jelly stands for his favorite safecracking device, nitroglycerin. Top notch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)