A Cold Day in Paradise: A Mystery (Alex McKnight Mysteries (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: Do Yourself a Favor
Review: A COLD DAY IN PARADISE is Steve Hamilton's first novel. In it he introduces us to Alex McKnight, ex-cop, ex-baseball player, current private investigator carrying around a bullet in his chest from a shooting 14 years previous in which his partner and friend was killed. When McKnight is taunted with information supposedly known only to he and the imprisoned killer and is later tormented with intrusive recollections from the past, it begins to appear to McKnight that the man in prison is responsible for two murders in the present. Once the groundwork for the mystery is laid, i.e. how can a man in prison commit two murders out of prison, I was hooked. My guess is you'll be hooked too.

In A COLD DAY IN PARADISE, Hamilton displays his skill to write tense and absorbing scenes driven by realistic dialogue spoken by intiguing characters easily visualized. Having read two previous novels with McKnight as the main character, it was well worth the reading experience to read Hamilton's first book. It was interesting to see the basis for the behaviors and relationships described in the later books.

Whether you've read Hamilton's later books and are interested in McKnight's past, or have never experienced the writing skill of Steve Hamilton, do yourself a favor and read this well-deserved Edgar and Shamus awards winner!

Tim Smith

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, quite a page turner
Review: First time author Steve Hamilton does a wonderful job of keeping you guessing in 'A Cold Day In Paradise'.

His flawed hero, Alex Mcknight a ex-policemen from Detroit, is tortured by a single event that changed his life forever. Alex's partner was killed by a madman who calls himself 'Rose'.

The problem is that Alex lived, with a bullet one inch from his heart. It's a reminder and a hollow pain that won't go away.

Alex tries to 'get away' to a small town in the upper Michigan Peninsula, to forget, and find some inner peace. He succeds for awile until a couple of murder's barring the unmistakable signature of 'Rose' appear in his quiet little town.

Has Rose come back?, how could this be?

Mr. Hamilton does a excellent job of weaving a fasinating mystery, the plot rarely slows, it's tight and as crisp as a artic breeze from Lake Superior.

Alex Mcknight is a very likable character, i particularly enjoyed the atmosphere Hamilton provided and the local people that Alex interacts with. They all come across very real..Highly Recomended

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I hoped
Review: I had heard great things about this book, so my expectations were high. The setting (nothern rural Michigan) is interesting, the protagonist is reasonably likeable, but otherwise I was disappointed. The ending seemed to become obvious long before I would like it to in a mystery. Several scences involving driving drone on to the point of tedium. Overall, it is a decent read, but nothing special.

Rating:
Summary: Great new author...great P. I.
Review: Steve Hamilton comes at you from several different directions in his first novel, A Cold Day in Paradise. That's Paradise, Michigan on the shores of Lake Superior in the upper peninsula. The setting and local color are terrific. Alex McKnight, ex-minor league baseball player, ex-Detroit cop with a bullet still lodged in his chest and now a private investigator, works his way through two murders, a missing person case and a monster killer from his past that leave you guessing until the very end of the book. Good characters. Tight plot. A real page-turner. This is a book you won't be able to put down. Steve Hamilton's got a real winning combination here.

Rating:
Summary: Paradise Lost
Review: Steve Hamilton's award-winning debut is a very involving and well-written novel. The main character, Alex McKnight, is an interesting, if flawed, hero, one minute being Superman and the next Supersensitive. But he's likeable and he seems real.

The background of Alex's shootout with a madman named Rose is fascinating in that a bullet was left lodged in his heart, although his partner died in the onslaught.

Fourteen years later, McKnight is back home in the upper Michigan peninsula, running cabins his late father built, and becoming a reluctant PI assisting a smooth lawyer named Lane.

McKnight is then embroiled in a thick noir plot involving his somewhat best friend millionaire and his wife, whom McKnight once had an affair with.

The book moves at a very quick pace, and as it appears that the madman responsible for his injury is somehow murdering bookmakers, the plot thickens.

The denouement is unusually abrupt, but it certainly does smell of a sequel.

All in all, a very good read and I'm looking forward to reading the second entry in the Alex McKnight series, which I shall do as soon as I finish this review.