So much did I enjoy the first book in the Alex McKnight series - A Cold Day in Paradise - that I just couldn't wait to start this one, the second. But while I enjoyed it enough to give it a 4-star rating, I have to say that if I were to be super-honest, it's probably closer to a 3.5; it just didn't quite measure up to its predecessor.Mostly, I think, that's because the story just didn't excite me very much. Yes, former cop McKnight still lives in the remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan - one of my all-time favorite places to visit. But this one takes place in the dead of winter (I like cold weather and even snow, but winter weather here in Ohio is a walk in the park compared with what happens up there, where, we were told, UPS deliveries to Mackinac Island come by way of the frozen lake - a more direct route than the roads ). My other complaint, though relatively minor, is that while I love tough guys who can both dish it out and take it, there are limits on what any human body can withstand - and anything that exceeds those limits becomes (to me) unbelievable.The story begins as winter sets in with a vengeance, and a woman from the local Ojibwa tribe seeks out McKnight's help in getting away from an abusive boyfriend - a nasty guy who had a run-in with McKnight when they played ice hockey on opposing teams a day or two earlier (McKnight's friend Vinnie LeBlanc, also an Ojibwa, recruited him to serve as goalie). McKnight lets the woman stay in one of the cabins he rents out to fishermen (and presumably women) and snowmobilers; but the next morning, she's nowhere to be found. Unhappy that he didn't do more to help her, McKnight sets out to find her - with help from his new "partner," Leon Prudell, who's hell-bent to pair his name with McKnight's on a jointly owned private investigation firm. McKnight isn't at all amenable to that concept, but getting rid of Prudell turns out to be almost as difficult as finding the woman and the abusive boyfriend. Their relationship does, though, provide a bit of much-needed comic relief from the cold and physical tribulations that plague McKnight throughout the book. All in all, this is an enjoyable book and certainly didn't change my mind about reading all 10 books in the series. Still, I'm hoping the third one will be on a par (or better than) the first. We'll see!
This is the 2nd book in the Alex McKnight series. I'm always looking for a good series with characters I like or at least find interesting enough that I want to know more about them. Alex McKnight is a former Detroit police officer that has to give up his job after his partner is killed on the job and he is wounded and ends up with a bullet that is lodged to close to his heart to be removed. The books are set in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and so far have taken place in the dead of winter. Part of the draw of these books and maybe the way I found them was they were on a list of books to read when it is >100 degrees outside. It was interesting reading about how very cold it was and how difficult it is to deal with that kind of weather. Anyway Alex gets drawn into to being a very reluctant private investigator and becomes involved in murders, kidnappings etc.This character is not quite as intriguing as Lucas Davenport in the John Sandford "Prey" series but he is interesting and flawed enough to make me continue the series.
What do You think about Winter Of The Wolf Moon (2000)?
This is the second book in the series and I have high hopes for those that follow. This one is as good or better than the first. Our hero, Alex McKnight experiences fifty shades of cold in the book. It opens at a hockey game that Alex, at age 48, was promised would be a non-checking game. The cold continues with the relentless falling of snow in the Upper Penninsula. Alex plows, and plows, and wades through drifts and crawls under buildings, visits an ice fisherman's shanty and makes an unbelievable walk in the cold. This book also starts the partnership of Alex and Leon who had been rival PIs. We also learn a little about the Ojibwa Indian tribe and their traditions. As for Alex...he is a flawed hero, but he is aware of his shortcomings. That makes him so much more real and sympathetic. My next read will be set in Florida or the Caribbean...I need to warm up!
—Mary Sue
The second Alex McKnight page-turner about life and mayhem in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I read the first one a few weeks ago and thought I knew (from its ending) what this one would be about. But I was wrong--a whole new set of problems emerges for the narrator-protagonist. This one, like the first, kept me interested and guessing from the start; but unlike the first time, this one's solution was so simple that I had a surprised Doh! moment when it was revealed. Either I was more than usually dense, or Hamilton did a very good job of disguising clues. I look forward to number three.
—Jon
WINTER OF THE WOLF MOON-G+Hamilton, Steve-Ex-cop and sometime P.I. Alex McKnight endures the bitter winter of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in his log cabin with warm fires and cold Molsons. When Dorothy Parrish, a young Ojibwa woman, asks him for shelter from her violent boyfriend, McKnight agrees. But after secreting her in one of his cabins, he finds her gone the next morning. McKnight suspects vicious, hockey-playing Lonnie Bruckman of abducting the woman. But his search for her brings on more suspects, bruising encounters, and a thickening web of crime, all obscured by the relentless whiplash of brutal snowstorms. From the secret world of the Ojibwa reservation to the Canadian border and deep into the silent woods, someone is out to kill-and McKnight is driving right into the line of fire.MN in winter, good sense of place, ice fishing shack
—LJ
