Rating: 
Summary: Compelling On More Than One Level
Review: After his recent adventures, chronicled in the previous book North Of Nowhere, Alex McKnight is attempting to pick up the pieces of his life by rebuilding his cabin with the help of Vinnie Le Blanc, an Ojibwa indian who is his friend and neighbour. Breaking the reverie that comes with the rebuilding process is news that Vinnie's brother Tom is way overdue from a hunting expedition in Canada where he was to act as a guide. The two men decide to head north in a bid to track Tom's movements and try to find him. From here the story turns into a fight for survival in the wilds of North Canada.As Alex and Vinnie uncover the story of what happened up at the hunting lodge, more questions come up than are answered. They realise too late that their lives have become endangered but can't work out why. Of course, they aren't given terribly long to work on the why part of the question because they are kept busy working overtime trying to save their own skins. It's a tantalising thriller that had me guessing right up towards the very end. Thrown in with this are the wonderful descriptions of the untamed wilderness of Ontario that was brilliantly captured by Hamilton. I found the story compelling reading on more than just one level making it doubly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Strong Blood Ties
Review: Alex McKnight travels to the woods of north Ontario with Ojibway friend Vinnie LeBlanc in a search for Vinnie's brother, Tom, hired as a guide for five Detroit gangsters, all of whom have failed to return. When they arrive, Alex and Vinnie are told the hunting party has already left. In Alex and Vinnie's search they discover the Suburban, find shallow graves, and bears digging up burned bodies. BLOOD IS THE SKY reveals much about family, revenge, and soothing the wounds of sorrow created when children are killed. Alex becomes Vinnie's blood brother and the theme of the story compares the bond of friendship to the bond of ancestry and family. BLOOD IN THE SKY was a quick, thought-provoking mystery and thriller. It was very realistic and plausible and concludes by tying the loose ends together in an ending that is believable and makes perfect sense.
Rating: 
Summary: Test of Friendship
Review: BLOOD IS THE SKY is really divided into thirds. The story begins with Alex McKnight rebuilding a cabin his father built in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. His Indian friend, Vinnie LeBlanc,ends up helping him.
The first 100 pages deal mostly with rebuilding their friendship that became strained in NORTH OF NOWHERE, along with the cabin. Extremely poignant characterization dealing with loyalty, male bonding, test of friendship, and difference of culture. In the second third of the book, action really picks up when Vinnie's brother, Tom, disappears. Tom, an ex-convict and ex-drug addict is trying to get his life into order. He takes a job as a moose-hunting guide in the wilds of Canada. Tom and his Detroit hunting party disappear without a trace. Alex and Vinnie head to Canada to find him. Events happen that strands Alex and Vinnie a very remote wilderness with little more than the clothes on their backs. Here their survival skills come into full-play. Fast-paced, page-turning action in this section. The last third of the book deals with the why of what happened. There are plenty of surprises in store. I like the way Steve Hamilton can unravel his stories without a lot of misdirection, but at the same time keep the suspense level high. Steve Hamilton is one of the finest crime writers working today. He continually weaves together detailed plotting, compelling primary and secondary characters, and heart-pounding action.
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: Blood is the Sky recaptures that feeling of danger-at-every-turn excitement that got me hooked on this series when I read A Cold Day in Paradise. That was something that I thought was really lacking in North of Nowhere and Winter of the Wolf Moon. We also start to see some real development and progress in Alex as a character, and the way this book ends really makes you look forward to the next novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: Despite significant effort on my part I could not finish this novel - it was just too boring. Chapter after chapter went by and nothing caught the attention of my imagination. Flat characters, tedious scene descriptions, flaccid style -- I can't imagine how Hamilton has earned a reputation as a good writer. There are too many excellent mysteries on the market to waste time with this mediocrity. I give it an F.
Rating:
Summary: Like eating peanuts
Review: I discovered this Steve Hamilton novel by reading through some of the customer's reviews on a C. J. Box story. So I picked up this story at a local Waldenbook's store and literally got hooked on the storyline and character of Alex McKnight. Coincidentially, my family and I had spent a week in a cabin on the Lake at Paradise, MI about ten years ago (nearly froze our butts off when we visited Whitefish Point-and it was July yet). The authors descriptions of the UP are right on the mark-even to the only blinking red-light in the town. This is a very fast paced narrative story. Hamilton is a great storyteller-actualy he's telling the story in the lst person through Alex. I could not put the book down once Alex and Vinnie arrived at the remote lake by plane. After finishing the novel, I bought five more of Hamilton's novels. Just finished "A Cold Day in Paradise" and I am presently "digesting" Winter of the Wolf Moon. Like I said, once you start, it's like eating peanuts. All you need is a bottle of Canadian Moulson Beer with which to wash it all down.
Rating:
Summary: Better and better
Review: I live in Sault Ste.Marie,Ontario-and it is fascinating to read a REALLY good mystery set so accurately in your own area.So many times I have been disappointed by poor writing by other authors.But Steve Hamilton just keeps getting better and better.I was hooked from the time I read his first book and this book does NOTHING to change that.I have got several bulletin board buddies now under his spell.Can hardly wait to read "Ice Cut"!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Descriptions, Rather Flat Mystery
Review: I'm a bit torn. I think McKnight is a good writer, and I've enjoyed this series overall. But I don't know if I'll rush to put these books on the top of my TBR pile when they come out in the future. I think part of the reason for this is that Hamilton just doesn't seem inclined to give readers a traditional mystery. I imagine that there are some for whom this is a blessing. But I just don't know how much longer I can put up with McKnight's "reluctant investigator" persona. In this book, Alex decides to help out his friend Vinnie, first introduced in _Winter of the Wolf Moon_. Vinnie is an Ojibwa Indian and he's worried because his brother Tom is overdue in returning from a moose hunt in Canada. To make things worse, because he was just recently released from prison and is on parole, Tom isn't supposed to leave the country, so Vinnie loaned him his identification. Alex and Vinnie drive north to the isolated hunting lodge where Tom and his party of hunters, a group from Detroit, were to head out into the wilderness. They find the owners of the camp shutting things down, for probably the last time, since the number of hunting parties coming there has been dropping steadily. According to the man who owns the lodge, Tom and his group came back on schedule and drove off in their SUV. When the vehicle is later found abandoned on a local Indian reservation, things begin to look suspicious. There are some great things in this book. Hamilton does a very good job with character, creating real, believable people who it is a pleasure to spend time with. Also, the book does a great job of exploring male friendship and the lengths to which people are willing to go to help each other out. Vinnie had sent Tom on the hunt in the first place because he was scared his brother might try to commit suicide and he thought the trip was just what he needed. And people are constantly commenting on the lengths to which Alex goes to help out Vinnie. This brings up another of Hamilton's strengths, which is his descriptions of nature and setting. When Alex and Vinnie convince an old Indian guide, Maskwa, to fly them out to the isolated lake where Tom and his hunting party were last seen, the two of them decide to stay there overnight. They can't foresee the sequence of events that will leave them stranded, with no way to get a message back to civilization, at the mercy of at least one unknown person armed with a high-powered rifle. This sequence, which lasts for a couple of chapters, contains some of the most vivid descriptions of the outdoors that I've encountered for awhile. The thing that really threw me though is the whole mystery aspect of the book. Just what is going on and what happened to Tom and the hunting party is left unexplained until the very end. There just isn't a lot of investigating going on in the book. Instead, the book turns into a travelogue of Vinnie and Alex driving around, asking questions, trying to find some trace of the missing hunters. All of their driving around is presented in quite a bit of detail, including several trips back and forth from northern Ontario to Paradise, Michigan, the series' home. The solution to the mystery, ultimately, is sad and satisfying, but it is so delayed as to be rather annoying. There isn't even a hint about what's going on until the last couple of chapters. I guess I'd recommend the book, but I'm still waiting for Hamilton to recapture some of the magic of earlier books in the series, particularly _Winter of the Wolf Moon_, my favorite so far. I hope the next book, if there is one, will be a bit more traditional.
Rating:
Summary: His Novels Get Better and Better!
Review: I've read them all, and each one is better than the last. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: His Novels Get Better and Better!
Review: I've read them all, and each one is better than the last. Buy it. You won't be disappointed.
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