Blood Is The Sky (Alex Mcknight)

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: 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: 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: ...Never Gives Up Her Dead...
Review: This is another full-strength North Woods mystery from Edgar Award winning author Steve Hamilton. Sufficient background information is provided that a reader would not necessarily need to start at the beginning with "A Cold Day in Paradise," - but why miss all the fun and excitement?

Alex McKnight, former Detroit cop, former Major League Baseball player for a day, currently cabin concierge cum reluctant investigator in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP) signs on to help Ojibwa buddy Vinnie LeBlanc (Misquogeezhig - Red Sky) locate his wayward brother, last seen "guiding" a bunch of Detroit chimookomanag. This leads McKinight and LeBlanc through Northern Ontario - but it ain't no lightweight Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road Movie. It's a taut tale, often bleak and gritty as the two, with help from friends and family back home in the UP, search for answers in the mysterious North. It's a fine addition to the Hamilton oeuvre. Reviewed by TundraVision

Rating:
Summary: Great Suspense
Review: This is the fifth book in the Alex McKnight series about a former cop turned rental agent that works in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the shore of Lake Superior. We start out with Alex rebuilding his cabin that has burned to the ground. He is doing this in late fall and it appears he might not get it built before the winter snows start. Alex appears to be surviving from some dark things from his past and doesn't want to ask for help and is using this as a healing exercise.

A friend of his by the name of Vinnie, an Ojibwa Indian, offers to help him rebuild the cabin and tells him that he is doing everything the wrong way. Vinnie doesn't show up to help Alex one day and Alex being the good friend that he is goes looking for him. Vinnie has given his brother Tom his driver's license, because Tom has had trouble with the law in the past. Tom needs this identification to leave the U S and enter Canada to take some Americans on a moose hunt. Tom doesn't return and Alex and Vinnie try to follow the trail of where he could be and why he hasn't returned home. This trip takes them all over the Interior of Canada to areas that are not reached by vehicle but by float planes and at times it appears they will not survive. Without some of the Indian survival techniques they might not.

This book is filled with Indian Folk Lore, laughter and with tears, which in my book rates 5 stars. The suspense was the kind that keeps you turning the pages. Alex is a very troubled man in this book and you can feel his pain in the pages, but it also is a very healing experience for him and a very interesting transition happens. I am hopeful that Mr. Hamilton will be writing the sequel to this book as I would love to see the development of Alex and possibly even that of his adopted brother Vinnie.