Ice Run : An Alex McKnight Novel

Rating:
Summary: Actually a 3.5...a C+
Review: "Ice Run" is Steve Hamilton's sixth Alex McKnight novel...and the first that failed to electrify me.

Just as the first major blizzard of winter pelts Michigan's UP, Alex is off for a romantic weekend with his newly found love, Ontario Provincial Police officer, Natalie Renaud.

Things get weird as soon as Alex arrives. An immaculately dressed elderly man approaches Alex and joins him in the elevator. The man shows Alex his out-of-date homberg, asking Alex to guess how old it is. Trying to ignore him, Alex remains silent.

Later that evening, the old man is found frozen to death...and the hat placed in front of Alex's hotel room filled with ice, snow and a note that says, "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE."

This incident restarts a generations old blood feud...Natalie's past being as scarred as Alex's. As usual, Alex will go to the mat for a friend in jeopardy.

He gets beaten within an inch of his life...and remains far from any answers. I felt Alex pulled so many stupid moves, that all credulity was stretched...and found his girl friend totally unsympathetic---slowing the plot.

On the plus side, we see quite a bit of Leon Prudell (Alex's former PI partner) as well as Vinnie LeBlanc, Alex's Ojibway comrade. These two are outstanding and well defined supporting characters.

The usual wonderful sense of place that is a Steve Hamilton hallmark transports you into the middle of the frozen landscape.

A C+.

Rating:
Summary: Baby, it's cold outside.
Review: "Ice Run" is the latest Alex McKnight novel by Steve Hamilton, and it takes place during the coldest time of the year in Michigan. Snow is measured by feet, not inches, and if you don't bundle up, you can freeze to death. Alex McKnight, the loner ex-cop who had pretty much given up on love, has fallen for Natalie Reynaud, a cop from the Ontario Provincial Police. One night, when Alex and Natalie visit the fancy Ojibway Hotel in Sault Ste. Marie, an elderly man tips his hat to them. Little do they know that this man holds the key to Natalie's painful past, and both Natalie and Alex are about to be dragged back in time.

At its best, "Ice Run" is an atmospheric and brooding story, with terse dialogue and some delightfully quirky characters. I especially like Jackie, who cares for Alex so much that he reams him for getting sucked into Natalie's problems, and Leon, Alex's old friend, who at a moment's notice, drops everything to do some important digging for his old pal.

The villains, alas, are stock characters, and the mystery itself is not particularly involving. However, Hamilton has a way of capturing the loneliness and desolation of a Michigan winter and tying it in with the characters' bitter and icy emotions. Alex is a charismatic and compassionate hero, and it is hard not to cheer for a man who is willing to risk his life for the woman he loves.

Rating:
Summary: Read this one by the fire...
Review: Alex McKnight is no stranger to having the stuffing beaten out of him. Recovering from wounds obtained while working his last case, he finds that his life away from the world from private investigation will still find a way to drop him in the middle of someone else's trouble. The sea change of looking after his family's holiday cabins in the town of Paradise, Michigan isn't working in the peace like he had hoped it would. Fed up with a relationship that is going nowhere Alex takes the plunge and organises a hotel rendezvous with Natalie Reynaud, a beautiful Canadian woman who has her own reasons to want to live in the shadows for awhile, away from the stresses of being a police officer.

It doesn't turn out to be the romantic weekend he had hoped for. Fighting the worst of what winter can throw at him, Alex makes it to the hotel and encounters an elderly gentleman who seems to have been abandoned at the hotel, yet is quite at home. Returning to their room after dinner the man's distinctive hat is found there, upturned with a bowl of snow inside surrounding a note stating "I know who you are". Too late to ask the old man what he means - he has taken a walk in fierce weather and is found frozen to death in a snowbank. Where does it go from here? Straight into the murky past of a family feud that dates back generations and murders unsolved.

Entry number six in the Alex McKnight series is a winner. Author Steve Hamilton serves it straight up - solid characterization, a quirky plot and a relentless pace all deliver a great read in this successful series. Hamilton strips his narrative of all unnecessary detail and what is left in is both pertinent and entertaining. The character of Alex McKnight is hard not to like and there is sufficient input from the intriguing secondary characters to make you want to search out the other novels. "Ice Run" functions very well also as a standalone read. Push the cat off the chair and read this one by the fire.

Rating:
Summary: The Key to the Present often lies in the Past.
Review: Another full-strength North Woods Alex McKnight mystery from Edgar Award winning author Steve Hamilton, "Ice Run" is a riveting ride that makes TundraVision's "Sleep? Who Needs Sleep? Page Turners - all night long" List. 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 is a former Detroit cop, former Major League Baseball player for a day, currently cabin concierge cum reluctant investigator in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP) When we last saw him, he and friend Vinnie LeBlanc, Bay Mills Ojibwa, had just solved the mystery of Vinnie's missing brother - with some help along the way from the beautiful but enigmatic Constable Natalie Reynaud, Ontario Provincial Police. Alex and Natalie meet in the middle, in Sault St. Marie, where they encounter an odd old man in a hat, who mysteriously dies on a walk on a cold winter night. What's going on here? And what has it to do with Natalie?

Making thrilling and chilling ice runs through blinding blizzards between Alex's home in Paradise, UP Michigan, Natalie's home in Blind River, Ontario, Batchwana Bay and knick knack Mackinac Island, the sleep-deprived reader learns that the key to the present often lies in the past. Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer.

Rating:
Summary: Natalie is a jerk!
Review: I love Steve Hamilton's books and have read them all. But in this one Natalie is introduced again as Alex's girlfriend. What a waste! Alex doesnt deserve her! I am jealous!
Seriously, Steve Hamilton writes one cool book. His descriptions are the best and you run for a blankie to finish the book.

Alex is always (...) in trouble and this time he gets the stuffing kicked out of him = again. How that bullet doesnt blow up inside him is beyond me. I guess I keep reading to see when and if it ever does. In the meantime, give Alex a hug for me. This was a fast, exciting read. Lose the babe!!!!! Alex deserves better! :D

Rating:
Summary: The latest in one of the genre's best series
Review: Sometimes it is the voice of the character that is the major strength of a work. It may exceed the plot, pacing or depiction of locale as the most important characteristic of the writer. Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight is one of the most vivid and memorable in all of the mystery genre. Steve exploded on the scene in 1998 with the Edgar award winning A COLD DAY IN PARADISE. Since that time he has written a total of four other books with Alex McKnight as the main protagonist- all superior reads and among the best the genre has to offer.
ICE RUN starts out easy enough. A snow storm is coming to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Alex wants to meet his girlfriend, Natalie Raynaud, a Canadian Police Officer, in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan- about a two and a half hour drive from his home in Paradise. When he shows up a day late, an elderly gentleman is in the lobby with a suit and a fancy hat smiling and asking whether Alex likes his hat. Later, while Alex and Natalie are having dinner, the man buys them champagne and disappears out the door. The next day he turns up dead. Who was and how did he know them? These answers are considerably more complex.
As good as Steve Hamilton books are, not all are perfect. ICE RUN rings true with the voice of Alex McKnight but the book has its flaws. Characters, especially the minor ones, are not well sketched and tend to come off a bit wooden. The solution is so convoluted that it can make the reader's head spin and the ending contains the detested scene of the villian holding the hero at gunpoint as we clear up some final points just prior to the predictable conclusion. Nonetheless, the plot is compelling, the locale beautifully rendered and the frigid milieu should prove refreshing reading in the hot summer months. Steve Hamilton is an excellent writer but as much as I would miss Alex McKnight, it might be time for Steve to leave him alone in Paradise for awhile and create a standalone. That will be the best way to allow Steve the wider audience he so much deserves. Well recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An Average Novel
Review: This was a disappointing read in that the plot was not as captivating as the previous books in the series. I thought the plot was rather thin. Good points of the novel was the writing and the sense of place. Look forward to your next book. Authors that I enjoy and highly recommend: Dana Stabenow, Julia Spencer Fleming, Michael Connelly and Karin Slaughter.