The king-killers

Mac #14

by Thomas B. Dewey

When Mac tries to help a friend collect an unpaid bill, he gets more than he bargained for...including a corpse! #15 in the Mac detective series.

"Mac is one of our best private eyes." -- San Francisco Chronicle



"Thomas B. Dewey is one of detective fiction's severely underrated writers!" -- Bill Pronzini



"Mac has been called one of the most believable and humane PI's in crime fiction. He is reluctant to use either his gun or his fists, but will do so when the situation demands it, or in self-defense; he doesn't merely solve his clients' cases, but provides moral support and sympathy as well; and perhaps most notable of all, Mac feels, and is not afraid to show itópain, loss, sorrow, loneliness." --thrillingdetective.com

Genres: Fiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1969

About the author

Thomas Blanchard Dewey was an American author of hardboiled crime novels. He created two series of novels: the first one features Mac, a private investigator from Chicago, the second features Pete Schofield.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mac is Back

The fifteenth book in Thomas Dewey’s Mac detective series is a bit of a mess and isn’t quite up to the high quality of the earlier books in the series. Mac takes on a collection Case where payment for a shipment of toy guns hasn’t been made. But as he goes to collect, he finds that the organization involved seems more geared to utilizing real firearms than mere toys. None of it makes much sense. Nor does it when he’s tasked with finding another private eye who takes a barroom beating. Mac is set up as a patsy or do it seems. Again, little makes sense as Mac chases down leads on a bunch of seemingly unrelated people to Los Angeles and to a compound in the hills east of San Diego. All the swagger and attitude is there, but it’s just such a twisted mess that as a reader you couldn’t care less or could you.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not too bad for a .25c buy from a yard sale, but then again not too great either. The description on the flap sounds very interesting A private detective working with an acquaintance to collect for an unpaid bill (for defective wooden guns) gone wrong, and the subsequent bloody beating of said private detective and a dead man in the room when he regains consciousness - looks like someone's trying to frame him. Oh, and did I mention he bumps into another private detective investigating the same people but from another angle? Dewey's book goes very fast and there's a lot of action - it's even been compared to Dashiell Hammett's works. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's anywhere near that good, or has stood the test of time like Hammett (Dewey's novel was published in 1968) but it's still an okay hard-boiled noir crime fiction tale.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid 60s PI genre,
the Mac series stands out to me due to the PI not being the typical sexist, drunk and gun happy formula detective so overwritten in this genre.
Sadly, Dewey is often overlooked, as one of the best imo of the genre writers of that time period (1950-1960s)