A Cold Day In Paradise

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant first novel....
Review: and winner of the Edgar Award, A COLD DAY N PARADISE, is truly outstanding in it's characters and story line. It was a book recommended to me by Amazon and they were right....I couldn't read it fast enough. It immediately gets into the story wih Alex McKnight as the retired cop turned private eye. The way in which the plot is developed, the introduction of the characters, the characters themselves and the insertions of McKnight remembering his past make a marvelous, intriguing package - tied together very, very expertly at the shocking and truly amazing ending. I have already puchased "WINTER OF THE WOLF MOON" , Hamilton's second novel and I will bet "dollars to donuts" that it will be just as suberbly written and even more suspenseful than the first. If you like intrigue, suspense,surprises, excellent character and plot development and an answer to the mystery that is at your fingertips but just out of your reach- read this: "A COLD DAY IN PARADISE'; and no matter how warm the summer weather is, keep a blanket handy because besides everything else this novel contains, it is chilling! Have a wonderful read!

Rating:
Summary: Hot One
Review: I completed this book the same day I started it. I liked the character Alex McKnight he was flawed and definately not a 'super-hero' however he may have been a bit too flawed for my liking.

Very atmospheric and well written. Kept me guessing until the end. I look forward to reading more of Hamilton's novels.

Rating:
Summary: Good first novel
Review: Alex McKnight is a PI living in Paradise, Michigan. He's an ex-cop who was shot in the line of duty and almost died. The man who did the shooting, Maximillian Rose, was caught and is in prison for life. Or so McKnight thinks. However first a bookie is murdered and then another bookie. And McKnight starts getting notes from the killer and the notes sound just like Rose. They mention things that only Rose would know. But no one believes McKnight, least of all of the police, who think that McKnight himself is the killer.

I liked this novel. I especially liked the plot. It's believeable and it doesn't depend on the tired serial-killer plot that everyone seems to use today. The dialog is good and the characterization isn't bad. Actually, I was a bit put off by the hero, Alex McKnight. He's angry throughout the whole book, always losing his temper with everyone. Not a very likeable guy. Anger seems to be device that many new novelists fall back on because they think it builds tension and it's an easy emotion to write about. I mean, everyone knows what anger feels like. However Mr. Hamilton overuses it and I hope he tones it down in later books.

Other than that, the book is good. A good solid mystery with a very good ending. Mr. Hamilton plays fair with his readers and when the killer is unmasked you can go back and look at the clues and say, "Yep, this works." I'd recommend this book. I intend to keep an eye out for the next book from Mr. Hamilton.

Rating:
Summary: good stuff -
Review: I simply like Steve Hamilton's two books. This was the first. His leading character, Alex McKnight is not a super-man. One feels his integrity and his pain. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a quick read that has good writing and character development.

Rating:
Summary: Award winning first novel rather a letdown.
Review: I suppose allowances should be made for this being a first novel but generally I found it rather unsatisfactory. The characters all tend to be unsympathetic ( Someone is murdering bookies, Like who cares?) The hero is a walking cliche, a P.I. who an ex sport figure, ex cop with a bad experience (the violent death of his partner) and who is also, quite frankly, a bit of a whiner. The few attempts at wisecracking dialogue are rather feeble and the explanation of the intriguing premise of how someone is a high security prison is leaving taunting messages for the hero is rather a letdown.

I did like the setting, a small town in Michigan on the shores of Lake Superior, the wintry descriptions and the interplay with the local characters as they sit in the tavern drinking their *imported* Canadian beer.

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.

Rating:
Summary: I hate to be this harsh, but...this book is atrocious.
Review: How this book won the awards that it did says less about the author than it does about the state of the genre in which they were awarded. In a word, it's a train-wreck.

There are so many reasons why I didn't like this book. Here are just a few:

**First of all, the dialogue is hollow, and in some places laughably bad (Hamilton's characters condescend to one another with the word "little", i.e. "nice little town you've got here". This might not seem like much, but trust me, it gets REALLY old.)

**The relationships we are supposed to care about (i.e. Alex and his cop partner, Alex and Sylvia) get little, if any development.

**How a "knockout" like Sylvia would end up with a dork like Edwin is never plausibly explained (Although Hamilton tries to in one short anecdote in which Edwin behaves WAY out of character.)

**Alex has an ex-wife. If you've haven't read the book, you already know as much about her as I do.

**Alex is shot, and retires to Michigan's upper peninsula. Apparently he is cryogenically frozen for 13 years, because that's how much unaccounted-for time passes between his shooting and the events of the book.

**Worst of all, the characters' motives (as they are revealed) fall ridiculously short of the acts they inspire. A pesky problem for a mystery novel.

I hate to be so roundly negative, but this is one of the worst books, bar none, that I have ever read. I don't say that to be harsh, just honest. It really was THAT BAD. Mr. Hamilton, I'm sure you put in many long hours crafting this novel, and I commend your dedication. But this is stealing. At $6, I can't even recommend an investment as a chair-leg evener.

Rating:
Summary: Weak ending
Review: I kept reading this book expecting a great conspiracy of some sort at the end. I enjoyed the characters especially the P.I. This is a ery well told story.

However, I was let down a little at the end. Not because it was not spectacular but because in one page the reader is wondering what is going on and in a paragraph or two our P.I. figures it all out without a hint.

Still a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended!
Review: Very enjoyable mystery featuring an ex-cop, ex-baseball player, current private investigator named Alex McKnight. He retired from the force after he was nearly killed by a maniac named Maximilian Rose. When two bookies in his small town are found murdered, all the signs point to Rose as the killer. But that is impossible -- the prison swears he's still in his cell and will be for the rest of his life. So who is leaving spooky notes on Alex's door, saying things only Alex and Rose know about? I was totally surprised by the ending (but part of that might be because I was busy for a week and was only reading it a few pages at a time). Am looking forward to the next book in the series (if there ever is one!).

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