Amazon.com ReviewOne of the most promising secondary figures in Steve Hamilton's series about reluctant northern Michigan PI Alex McKnight has always been his teetotaling Ojibwa Indian pal, Vinnie LeBlanc. But Vinnie remained mostly to himself through the first four McKnight adventures. Blood Is the Sky finally lets him loose, and it's both a pleasure and painful to see what results.Vinnie's younger, ex-con brother, Tom, has disappeared. In violation of his parole, Tom had guided a small contingent of moose hunters into the pacific forests of Ontario, but none of them had returned home on schedule. To assuage Vinnie's worries, McKnight agrees to drive with him into Canada and look for the men. No luck; the owners of a money-losing lakeside lodge where those sportsmen had stayed say they departed days ago. So where did they go? Who were the two other, unidentified guys who came looking for them in advance of McKnight and his friend? And why was the hunters' vehicle abandoned, with their wallets inside, near an Indian reservation? Looking for answers, the detective and Vinnie set off into the woods, where hungry bears are by no means the most dangerous creatures they'll have to face.Despite its Deliverance-like moments, and an explosively violent conclusion that's not sufficiently foreshadowed, Blood Is the Sky is really a gracefully composed study of character, as focused on Vinnie's strengths and failings as Hamilton's previous novel, North of Nowhere, was on the backstory of another series regular, bar owner Jackie Connery. Yet McKnight shines here, too, his self-effacing humor keeping readers amused, when they aren't amazed--again--by the lengths to which this supposedly lonerish sleuth will go to help a friend in trouble. --J. Kingston PierceFrom Publishers WeeklyEdgar winner Hamilton's engrossing novel of revenge, the fifth in his Alex McKnight series (after 2002's North of Nowhere), alternates between well-paced action fraught with danger and Alex's slow, meticulous inquiries. A former Detroit cop sidelined by a bullet, Alex is living quietly in Michigan's remote Upper Peninsula when he agrees to help an Ojibway friend, Vinnie Red Sky LeBlanc. Vinnie's searching for his black sheep brother, Tom, who hasn't returned from a job guiding a hunting party of wealthy Detroit men in the Canadian wilderness. The staff of an isolated lodge on an island-dotted lake arouses Alex and Vinnie's suspicions with their unsatisfactory explanations about the hunting party's trip. Then the anxious wives report their husbands are missing to the Ontario Provincial Police, leading Alex and Vinnie deeper into an investigation that eventually points to a crime in Detroit in 1985. The fate of Tom's hunting party becomes apparent early on, as the reader gets drawn into a complex series of inexplicable, and highly improbable, coincidences. Nonetheless, Hamilton develops his plot carefully. A fine writer, he excels at describing the lonely locale as well as depicting such memorable characters as tough-minded cop Natalie Reynaud and Maskwa, a 70-year-old Cree still flying his clapped-out plane around the Canadian skies.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edgar Award-winner Steve Hamilton introduced one of the most compelling characters in modern fiction with Alex McKnight. Now Alex finds himself in the middle of a very strange mystery with much greater consequences than he ever anticipated... AN OLD MAN WITH A SECRET...It may be one of the worst winters in recent memory in Paradise, Michigan, but Alex McKnight is looking forward to spending some quality time with his new girlfriend, Natalie Reynaud, an officer from the Ontario Provincial Police. But a chance encounter with a mysterious old man, Simon Grant, turns chilling when he seems to know a lot about Natalie and her family. A BIZARRE NOTE...When Natalie and Alex return to their room later that evening, they discover the same hat the old man was wearing lying outside their room filled with ice and snow and containing a cryptic note: I know who you are! A day later, Simon Grant is found frozen to death in a snowdrift. A BLOOD FEUD FROM THE PASTNatalie and Alex are stunned. The mystery is just too much of a coincidence for Alex to ignore. His trail leads him to a blood feud buried decades ago in Natalie's family's past-an event that can still drive men to kill each other...www.minotaurbooks.com "Powerful suspense and a socko climax."-Booklist

Amazon.com ReviewSnow doesn't just fall on cedars on Michigan's Upper Peninsula: it coats everything, mobile and inanimate, in a treacherously quick, dangerously thick blanket of white. As Alex McKnight observes, gazing out the window of his cabin in Paradise, "It looked like about six inches of new snow. Around here, that qualifies as scattered flurries." Given this climate, the urge to hibernate is perfectly understandable--batten down the hatches, throw another log on the fire, and wait until the spring thaw. For Alex, the denning impulse is as much psychological as it is physical. Haunted by memories of his deadly failures as a cop, a private investigator, and a lover, Alex wants nothing more than to plow his driveway, be cordial to the snowmobilers who rent his cabins, and lower his core emotional temperature to the forgetting point. Unfortunately, he's got friends who get in the way of his seasonal plans. When Vinnie LeBlanc, an Ojibwa Indian, convinces Alex to fill in as goalie for his hockey team, slap shots and hard checks are soon the least of his worries. Instead, he becomes embroiled in a tangle of conflicting allegiances; one of his opponents, Lonnie Bruckman, a bigot and a psychotic, is terrorizing the Ojibwa reservation in ways both personal and professional: he abuses his girlfriend, Dorothy Parrish, and sells "wild cat," a methamphetamine derivative, to members of the reservation. Dorothy--desperate to escape her Ojibwa heritage but reluctantly acknowledging its force--turns up on Alex's front door with a mysterious canvas bag and a plea for shelter: "'The wolf moon means it's time to protect the people around you because there are wolves outside your door.'" But the next day, she's gone.As Alex, devastated by his inability to protect Dorothy, tries to find her, he must confront Bruckman--for whom a snowmobile is less a recreational vehicle than an instrument of torture; a mysterious Russian named Molinov; the combined forces of the local police and the DEA; and, it seems, even those he has always considered friends. Luckily for Alex, Leon Prudell, "a two-hundred-forty-pound whirlwind of flannel and snowboots," who really, really wants to be a private investigator, is right there to lend a hand. Leon adds a welcome note of comic relief to the novel (as does, to be sure, Alex's own dryly sardonic wit), but the book's tone is largely elegiac: "It was the middle of the day, but with the sun hidden behind the clouds and the weight of snow in the air, there was an oddly muted light, dim yet persistent, as each snowflake seemed to glow with its own energy. I stopped for a moment ... hypnotized by the sight of it and by the sound of my own breathing." Surviving winter takes many kinds of courage, and the reader will be enthralled by Alex's efforts to disprove Molinov's ominous warning, "'Once you freeze all the way through to your soul, you will never feel warm again. You'll see.'"Steve Hamilton won the 1999 Edgar Award for his first Alex McKnight mystery, A Cold Day in Paradise, and Winter of the Wolf Moon will reassure readers that neither beginner's luck nor sophomore jinx troubles this author. --Kelly FlynnFrom Publishers WeeklyIt's just another lovely day in Paradise... for those who love zero-degree weather and frozen pipes. This Paradise is a town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where Hamilton catches up with reluctant gumshoe Alex McKnight after his debut in A Cold Day in Paradise. The frigid season finds Alex focused on snowplowing, maintaining the cabins he rents to snowmobilers and whiling away evenings at the Glasgow Inn with a few cold Canadians. After years as a cop and PI, Alex is ready to settle down to undisturbed country life. But as any good mystery writer knows (and Hamilton, who won the 1999 Edgar for Best First Novel, is no exception), that's not in the cards. One night, a young Native American, Dorothy Parrish, whose troubles are unclear but obviously serious, approaches Alex, then disappears. Her sudden disappearance has Alex presuming she's dead, and there's evidence that she was involved with ill-tempered, drug-crazed hockey player Lonnie Bruckman. Ignoring his initial trepidation to reenter the crime world, Alex vows to find Dorothy and her kidnapper--or killer. Bruckman is definitely involved, and Alex, with the help of his "partner," Leon Prudell, identifies multiple suspects. Bruckman's hockey buddies are threatening, but it soon becomes apparent that there's a more powerful force behind them. This is a most entertaining tale, peppered with wry humor and real, amusing characters. Hamilton presents a fast mystery brimming with insight into both the politics of U.S./Canadian border crimes and the relations between Native Americans and their white neighbors. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

“Steve Hamilton amazes me. Every time I think he's going to zig he zags.”—Michael Connelly “A gamechanger. Nick Mason is one of the best main characters I've read in years.”—Harlan Coben From New York Times-bestselling, two-time Edgar-award-winning author Steve Hamilton comes an unforgettable new hero, a man who will walk out of prison and into a harrowing double life that is anything but free. Nick Mason has already spent five years inside a maximum security prison when an offer comes that will grant his release twenty years early.  He accepts -- but the deal comes with a terrible price. Now, back on the streets, Nick Mason has a new house, a new car, money to burn, and a beautiful roommate.  He’s returned to society, but he's still a prisoner.  Whenever his cell phone rings, day or night, Nick must answer it and follow whatever order he is given.  It’s the deal he made with Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind serving a double-life term who runs an empire from his prison cell. Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes, hunted by the relentless detective who put him behind bars, and desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wife, Nick will ultimately have to risk everything—his family, his sanity, and even his life—to finally break free.**Review*Praise for The Second Life of Nick Mason “The sinner who gets a chance to start over is an archetypal figure in crime fiction.  Steve Hamilton works a smart variation on it in The Second Life of Nick Mason.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review* “A tense, coiled thriller . . . It moves like a bullet train, told in a deceptively simple, gin-clear prose that all but sucker punches the reader. . . . One of [Hamilton’s] best.”—Booklist (starred review) “Hamilton surpasses himself with Mason, who inspires storytelling of the leanest, most gripping sort. . . A terrific new hero.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[A] high-octane series launch . . . Hamilton guns it like Nick’s 1968 Mustang for a fast and furious ride.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Trust Stephen King. This book is the real deal.”—Stephen King “Steve Hamilton amazes me. Every time I think he's going to zig he zags. As original as any writer I've ever read, Hamilton once again reinvents himself and the genre with another wonderful character and story. Get in on the ground floor with The Second Life of Nick Mason. It's a great read.”—Michael Connelly “A gamechanger. Nick Mason is one of the best main characters I've read in years. An intense, moving, absolutely relentless book – it will grab you from the first line and never let go.”—Harlan Coben “Stunning. A gripping non-stop thriller. An engrossing read from page one. Steve Hamilton has delivered a fascinating new character. A flat out terrific read. I could not put this book down.”—Don Winslow “Whatever he writes, I'll read. Steve Hamilton's that good.”—Lee Child “If this book were a bullet, it would blow a hole right through you. Once Steve Hamilton pulls the trigger, the action in The Second Life of Nick Mason never lets up. Hamilton's tale of a man released from one prison only to find himself trapped in another is told with all the style and power we expect from an Edgar Award-winning author. This is crime fiction at its finest.”—William Kent Krueger (2014 Edgar Winner for Best Novel of 2013) About the AuthorSteve Hamilton is the New York Times-bestselling author of twelve novels, most recently Die a Stranger and Let It Burn.  His debut, A Cold Day in Paradise, won both an Edgar and a Shamus Award for Best First Novel. His standalone novel The Lock Artist was a New York Times Notable Crime Book and won an Alex Award and the Edgar Award for Best Novel. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won the prestigious Hopwood Award for writing, and now lives in Cottekill, NY, with his wife and their two children. **  

Amazon.com ReviewALEX MCKNIGHT IS BACK in the long-awaited return of one of crime fiction's most critically acclaimed series.On a frozen January night, a young man loops one end of a long rope over the branch of a tree. The other end he ties around his neck. A snowmobiler will find him thirty-six hours later, his lifeless eyes staring out at the endless cold water of Lake Superior. It happens in a lonely corner of the Upper Peninsula, in a place they call Misery Bay.             Alex McKnight does not know this young man, and he won’t even hear about the suicide until another cold night, two months later and 250 miles away, when the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex would ever expect to see comes walking in to ask for his help.              What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers will turn into a nightmare of sudden violence and bloody revenge, and a race against time to catch a ruthless killer. McKnight knows all about evil, of course, having faced down a madman who killed his partner and left a bullet next to his heart. Mobsters, drug dealers, hit men—he’s seen them all, and they’ve taken away almost everything he’s ever loved. But none of them could have ever prepared him for the darkness he’s about to face.Author One-on-One: Steve Hamilton and Michael Koryta In this Amazon exclusive, Steve Hamilton is interviewed by fellow thriller author Michael Koryta. The tables get turned when Hamilton interviews Koryta on the The Ridge page.Koryta: Misery Bay opens with relentless good cheer--a frigid night, a corpse dangling from a tree. And, back for the first time in a few years, Alex McKnight. Tell us a little about how it felt to be back with him from the writer's perspective.Hamilton: It was great to be back, for the simple reason that it had been so long. Almost five years between books! I hadn’t planned on being away from the series for so long, but I sorta ended up getting lost at sea there for a while. A standalone that just about kills you will do that.Koryta: You opened your career with seven straight Alex McKnight novels, and then followed with two standalones, including last year's The Lock Artist, which just won the Edgar for best novel. Did you always know you were going to return to Alex, or was there a time when you thought you were done?Hamilton: I knew that, after A Stolen Season, the last McKnight book, I really needed to take a break. And that Alex needed a break, too--as strange as that may sound to say about a fictional character. I just couldn’t bring myself to drag him out of his cabin, into some new sort of trouble again. Does that make any sense?Koryta: Absolutely! I know you don't write from an outline. What's something from Misery Bay that stands out as a favorite unanticipated development?Hamilton: I guess that would have to be the relationship that develops between Alex and his old nemesis, Chief Roy Maven. I knew they’d have to unlikely allies in this book, but actually having them together for so long, I was surprised to see how well that worked. I wouldn’t call them good friends or anything at this point, but they definitely had to come to a new understanding about each other.Koryta: We both got our publishing start through the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest. So tell me: who's your all-time favorite fictional detective, and who is a newer discovery that you're excited about?Hamilton: All-time favorite fictional detective? Still has to be Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder, I think. As far as a newer discovery... If you’re talking about a new private eye, I honestly don’t know of one right now. The genre has been down a little bit lately, and I haven’t read anything new and great for while. (Maybe this year’s contest winner? There’s always hope!)Koryta: As I look over my shoulder at the Steve Hamilton section in my bookshelf, I can't help but notice some repeated themes in the titles: winter, north, ice, cold, wind. And, oh yeah, misery. Be honest: are you really that inspired by cold weather, or is this evidence that you desperately want to move to the tropics?Hamilton: To me, when I think about “hardboiled” or “noir,” I think about cold. When just going outside to your car is an act of courage, that has to say something about you already, right? I know that Raymond Chandler’s idea of hardboiled was a sun-baked street in Los Angeles, but for me there’s just something about a frozen lake and a cold wind that will turn you inside-out.Koryta: I’m in sun-drenched Los Angeles right now and it’s tough to argue that point. This is your 10th novel. It has been 13 years since your Edgar-winning debut, A Cold Day in Paradise. What has changed in your perspective and approach to writing in that time and throughout those books?Hamilton: Well, it doesn’t get any easier. Or at least it shouldn’t, or else you’re doing it wrong. And I’m STILL waiting for a great idea for a book to come floating by and land on my shoulder like a some kind of beautiful butterfly. These authors who have all these great ideas that just come to them out of nowhere, I want to slap them. If I have one sorta half-baked idea that might get me through one chapter, I’m lucky.Koryta: What's next--another Alex or another standalone? Give us a taste.Hamilton: The publisher really likes this return to Alex thing, so they want some more of that. More importantly, I’m finding it’s pretty great to be back in Paradise. So for the next two books, at least, it’s Alex McKnight all the way! I know I’ll take breaks again and try new things, but it’s nice to know I can always to come back to see what he’s up to next.ReviewPraise for Misery Bay:"_Misery Bay_ showcases Hamilton's dark vision and his talents as a sturdy plotter. ... Hamilton's view of the harsh, bleak landscape of winter in Michigan's Upper Peninsula will have readers grabbing their coats and gloves as the frigid air seems to seep through the pages. Misery Bay is like a visit with an old friend with whom you can't wait to catch up."--_Sun-Sentinal_"A triumphant return for McKnight. Misery Bay is as good as the previous ones in this critically acclaimed series. The plot is as suspenseful as they come, with lots of unpredictable twists and turns."--_The Associated Press_"Superb.... Assured prose, a thrilling plot, and a surprising, satisfying conclusion make this a winner."--_Publishers Weekly _(starred review)"Hamilton's prose is straight and clean, as devoid of pretense as the author's name — Steve, just Steve, with no accompanying initials. The book's complexity comes in Hamilton's gift for layers and the slow reveal."--_Seattle Times_"The best mystery novel I’ve read in a while."--John J. Miller, The National Review"I'm often asked to recommend a detective series readers might have missed.  This is it. Hamilton has been flying under the radar with his Alex McKnight series for too long. Misery Bay will change that, I hope."--Harlan Coben"This new entry in Hamilton's Alex McKnight series is one of his best. ... You'll not put this down willingly, and when you do, you'll still be thinking about it."--_Romantic Times___ "Outstanding."--_Yahoo! Shine___ "A solid, character- and conflict-driven procedural with one of his twistier plots."--_The Boston Globe_ "Hamilton is as good as anyone out there when it comes to fast-paced dark mysteries."--_City Pulse_Praise for Steve Hamilton:“Hamilton’s compelling, vigorous prose doesn’t allow the option of taking a break.” —_Los Angeles__ Times “Steve Hamilton writes the kind of stories that manly men and tough-minded women can’t resist.” —The New York Times _"Hamilton writes tough, passionate novels.... This is crime writing at its very best.” —George Pelecanos “Hamilton gives us mysteries within mysteries as well as a hero who simply won’t be beaten down.” —_The Miami Herald _“Already one of our best writers.” —Laura Lippman “Hamilton’s prose moves us smoothly along and his characters are marvelously real.” —_Publishers Weekly “Hamilton’s prose...remains an unself-consciously terse pleasure.” —Entertainment Weekly “Hamilton... paints a rich and vivid portrait of a world where the chill in the air is often matched by that of the soul.” —The Providence Journal “Hamilton never misses a beat.” —Rocky Mountain News_"I really like his main character, Alex McKnight, and I'm ready to re-visit Paradise, Michigan."--James Patterson on North of Nowhere

Amazon.com ReviewAlex McKnight, the burned-out former cop turned PI of Steve Hamilton's Edgar Award-winning first novel, A Cold Day in Paradise, was a promising catcher who never quite made it to the majors. But his old teammate Randy Wilkins did, for one game with the Detroit Tigers that effectively ended the pitcher's career. What Randy can't forget about that game was the beautiful young woman he met the night before he blew his future in professional sports. Over two decades later, he's come to McKnight to track down the mysterious Maria, whose memory still haunts him. The trail is pretty cold after all these years, but Alex manages to get a line on Maria's relatives, who aren't exactly thrilled to make his acquaintance. In fact, they're downright hostile when Alex finds them in a small Michigan town, and he just barely escapes with his life. But he perseveres, and ultimately makes his way to an even smaller resort town, where the natives are almost as unfriendly. The police chief is so hostile to Alex's efforts that he quickly realizes someone else is on her tail, and that there's a good reason she's been hiding out for so long. Not only that, when someone shoots Randy and almost kills him, Alex is in for another nasty surprise. His old friend isn't who he seems to be, and Alex himself may be the victim of exactly the kind of scam Randy's been running since he left the majors.Hamilton has a well-developed sense of place, and he's good at exploring the complexities of his protagonist. But it's Randy the reader wants more fully realized, even after the mystery is solved and Alex makes a beeline back to Paradise. This is a taut, well-written thriller that fulfills Hamilton's promise as a writer to watch. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyEdgar and Shamus Awards-winner Hamilton's third Alex McKnight thriller (after A Cold Day in Paradise; Winter of the Wolf Moon) is the next best thing to Evelyn Wood. It is un-put-downable. McKnight, a former Detroit cop, was "retired" by a bullet that remains lodged in his chest. He owns a small business in upstate Michigan and likes to spend his time in the local pub watching his beloved Tigers on TV. One day, an old friend walks in a man he hasn't seen for 30 years. Alex has a soft spot for old buddies who exploit him mercilessly. This one is no exception. He wants Alex to help him find an former girlfriend whom he hasn't seen in decades. As he won't listen to reason, he and Alex are soon in Detroit on the almost nonexistent trail of his boyhood love. It is a leisurely but interesting trek that doesn't quicken until it seems to peter out entirely. Then, an unexpected act of violence causes everything we have believed real to blur into a haze of doubt. We are in the glorious, shadowy realm of noir where nothing is what it seems. Alex, the street-smart cop, is momentarily a babe in the woods in a pit of vipers. Hamilton's prose moves us smoothly along and his characters are marvelously real. His world is an existential one merciless to the innocent but in this exceptionally entertaining novel, McKnight is a decent man whose wits are a match for a whole world of vipers. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Let it Burn is the newest novel in the acclaimed Alex McKnight series by two-time Edgar award-winner and New York Times bestselling author Steve Hamilton.Even though Alex McKnight swore to serve and protect Detroit as a police officer, a trip to Motown these days is a trip to a past he’d just as soon forget. The city will forever remind him of his partner’s death and of the bullet still lodged in his own chest. So he’s more than happy to stay in the little town of Paradise, three hundred miles and half a lifetime away.Then he gets a call from his old sergeant. It turns out that a young man Alex helped put away will be getting out of prison. That one big case marked the highlight of his career, before his partner was killed, before his marriage fell apart, before he left Detroit, forever. Now that man is about to walk free.When the sergeant invites Alex downstate to have a drink for old times’ sake, it’s an offer he would normally refuse. However, there’s a certain female FBI agent he can’t stop thinking about, so he gets in his truck and he goes back to Detroit. While there, he’s reminded of something about that last case, a seemingly small piece of the puzzle that he never got to share. It’s not something anyone wants to hear, but Alex can’t let go of this gut feeling that they arrested the wrong man.And that the real killer not only got away, but went on to kill again.And again.And again.ReviewPraise for Steve Hamilton:“A proven master of suspense.” —LEE CHILD“I’m often asked to recommend a detective series readers might have missed. This is it.”—HARLAN COBEN"I really like his main character, Alex McKnight, and I'm ready to revisit Paradise, Michigan." —JAMES PATTERSON“Already one of our best writers.” —LAURA LIPPMAN"Hamilton writes tough, passionate novels.... This is crime writing at its very best.”—GEORGE PELECANOS“Hamilton’s compelling, vigorous prose doesn’t allow the option of taking a break.”—Los Angeles Times“Steve Hamilton writes the kind of stories that manly men and tough-minded women can’t resist.”—The New York Times“Hamilton . . . paints a rich and vivid portrait of a world where the chill in the air is often matched by that of the soul.”—The Providence Journal“Hamilton gives us mysteries within mysteries as well as a hero who simply won’t be beaten down.” —*The Miami Herald*“Hamilton’s prose . . . remains an unself-consciously terse pleasure.”—Entertainment WeeklyPraise for *Let It Burn:*“Let It Burn may be Hamilton's best novel yet.” —Shelf Awareness“McKnight’s vision of now-devastated Detroit is tremendously compelling.” —Booklist“Steve Hamilton has written another compelling addition to his continually outstanding Alex McKnight series with Let It Burn. As always, Hamilton's writing is realistically stylized with three-dimensional characters and atmospheric locales. You literally feel the heartbreak of present-day Detroit in comparison to its former glory days as the renowned Motor City. Let It Burn is thrilling crime drama at its very best.” —Fresh FictionAbout the AuthorSTEVE HAMILTON’s first novel, A Cold Day in Paradise, won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s Press Best First Private Eye Novel Contest before becoming a USA Today bestseller and winning both an Edgar and a Shamus Award for Best First Novel. His stand-alone novel The Lock Artist was named a New York Times Notable Crime Book, received an Alex Award from the American Library Association, and then went on to win the Edgar Award for Best Novel, making him only the second author (after Ross Thomas) to win Edgars for both Best First Novel and Best Novel. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won the prestigious Hopwood Award for writing, and now lives in Cottekill, New York, with his wife and their two children.

Amazon.com ReviewThat Steve Hamilton has won a following by writing private-eye novels about a guy who has no interest in being a PI is testament both to his storytelling talents and readers' hunger for fresh approaches to this genre. North of Nowhere finds ex-Detroit cop Alex McKnight celebrating his 49th birthday by retreating to his cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he laments his personal and career failures. Eventually, though, McKnight is coaxed out with the prospect of a poker game, hosted by wealthy contractor Winston Vargas, only to have the game interrupted by armed men in masks, who empty Vargas's safe and leave clues suggesting that Alex and his fellow players engineered the heist.Now, McKnight really has reason to feel sorry for himself. But instead, he goes after the gunmen, along the way swapping sucker punches with Vargas, shaking down his former detective partner (who videotaped the thieves' escape), and discovering that even his friends harbor secrets that could get them all killed.This fourth McKnight outing (after 2001's The Hunting Wind) is a fine showcase for Hamilton's lithesome prose. The pace is brisk, the episodes often humorous, and the tale brims with an infectious reverence for its natural setting ("God help me, on a summer night when the sun is going down, it is the most beautiful place on earth"). If Hammett moved the detective story from the drawing room into the mean streets, Hamilton has proved that the north woods have their own potential for homicidal intrigue. --J. Kingston PierceFrom Publishers WeeklyNo longer a cop, inactive as a private eye, classic loner Alex McKnight has retreated to his lakeside cabin in this superb yarn, Edgar-winner Hamilton's fourth after 2001's The Hunting Wind. In fact, Alex has become so much a recluse in the little town of Paradise in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that his few friends are worried about him. That leads Jackie Connery, the Scottish-raised proprietor of the bar where Alex sometimes hangs out, to badger him into joining a friendly power game at the home of Win Vargas. Before Alex can even work up a good dislike of the blustery, wealth-flaunting Vargas, three armed men interrupt the poker game. While Alex, Jackie and the other players are held at gunpoint, their host is led off to open a safe and his treasured collection of artifacts in trashed or stolen. From that quick beginning, events move swiftly and strangely. Alex finds Vargas's suspicions centering on him; the police, let my old enemy Chief Roy Maven, think Jack and the other players were in on the robbery. And Alex's ex-partner, PI Leon Prudell, turns out to have yet another take on who's behind the robbery. Hamilton keeps the action fast and furious and manages to keep the read off balance almost as much as his hero. As usual, Alex takes more than his share of lumps as he rediscovers the importance of friendship, loyalty and courage. While Alex McKnight would probably hate the idea, mysteries this good may make him extremely popular. Agent, Jane Chelius. (May 13) Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.