Winter of the Wolf Moon: A Mystery (Alex McKnight Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Two minutes. That's how long it took me to realize I had made a big mistake..." (more)
Key Phrases: ice shanty, wolf moon, last cabin, Chief Maven, Bay Mills, Lonnie Bruckman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Snow doesn't just fall on cedars on Michigan's Upper Peninsula: it coats everything, mobile and inanimate, in a treacherously quick, dangerously thick blanket of white. As Alex McKnight observes, gazing out the window of his cabin in Paradise, "It looked like about six inches of new snow. Around here, that qualifies as scattered flurries." Given this climate, the urge to hibernate is perfectly understandable--batten down the hatches, throw another log on the fire, and wait until the spring thaw. For Alex, the denning impulse is as much psychological as it is physical. Haunted by memories of his deadly failures as a cop, a private investigator, and a lover, Alex wants nothing more than to plow his driveway, be cordial to the snowmobilers who rent his cabins, and lower his core emotional temperature to the forgetting point. Unfortunately, he's got friends who get in the way of his seasonal plans.

When Vinnie LeBlanc, an Ojibwa Indian, convinces Alex to fill in as goalie for his hockey team, slap shots and hard checks are soon the least of his worries. Instead, he becomes embroiled in a tangle of conflicting allegiances; one of his opponents, Lonnie Bruckman, a bigot and a psychotic, is terrorizing the Ojibwa reservation in ways both personal and professional: he abuses his girlfriend, Dorothy Parrish, and sells "wild cat," a methamphetamine derivative, to members of the reservation. Dorothy--desperate to escape her Ojibwa heritage but reluctantly acknowledging its force--turns up on Alex's front door with a mysterious canvas bag and a plea for shelter: "'The wolf moon means it's time to protect the people around you because there are wolves outside your door.'" But the next day, she's gone.

As Alex, devastated by his inability to protect Dorothy, tries to find her, he must confront Bruckman--for whom a snowmobile is less a recreational vehicle than an instrument of torture; a mysterious Russian named Molinov; the combined forces of the local police and the DEA; and, it seems, even those he has always considered friends. Luckily for Alex, Leon Prudell, "a two-hundred-forty-pound whirlwind of flannel and snowboots," who really, really wants to be a private investigator, is right there to lend a hand. Leon adds a welcome note of comic relief to the novel (as does, to be sure, Alex's own dryly sardonic wit), but the book's tone is largely elegiac: "It was the middle of the day, but with the sun hidden behind the clouds and the weight of snow in the air, there was an oddly muted light, dim yet persistent, as each snowflake seemed to glow with its own energy. I stopped for a moment ... hypnotized by the sight of it and by the sound of my own breathing." Surviving winter takes many kinds of courage, and the reader will be enthralled by Alex's efforts to disprove Molinov's ominous warning, "'Once you freeze all the way through to your soul, you will never feel warm again. You'll see.'"

Steve Hamilton won the 1999 Edgar Award for his first Alex McKnight mystery, A Cold Day in Paradise, and Winter of the Wolf Moon will reassure readers that neither beginner's luck nor sophomore jinx troubles this author. --Kelly Flynn --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

It's just another lovely day in Paradise... for those who love zero-degree weather and frozen pipes. This Paradise is a town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where Hamilton catches up with reluctant gumshoe Alex McKnight after his debut in A Cold Day in Paradise. The frigid season finds Alex focused on snowplowing, maintaining the cabins he rents to snowmobilers and whiling away evenings at the Glasgow Inn with a few cold Canadians. After years as a cop and PI, Alex is ready to settle down to undisturbed country life. But as any good mystery writer knows (and Hamilton, who won the 1999 Edgar for Best First Novel, is no exception), that's not in the cards. One night, a young Native American, Dorothy Parrish, whose troubles are unclear but obviously serious, approaches Alex, then disappears. Her sudden disappearance has Alex presuming she's dead, and there's evidence that she was involved with ill-tempered, drug-crazed hockey player Lonnie Bruckman. Ignoring his initial trepidation to reenter the crime world, Alex vows to find Dorothy and her kidnapper--or killer. Bruckman is definitely involved, and Alex, with the help of his "partner," Leon Prudell, identifies multiple suspects. Bruckman's hockey buddies are threatening, but it soon becomes apparent that there's a more powerful force behind them. This is a most entertaining tale, peppered with wry humor and real, amusing characters. Hamilton presents a fast mystery brimming with insight into both the politics of U.S./Canadian border crimes and the relations between Native Americans and their white neighbors. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312974752
• ISBN-13: 978-0312974756
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #74,542 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 2 in The Alex McKnight Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER COLD DAY FOR ALEX, February 10, 2000

By	Nancy Martin (Pennsylvania (orig. NY)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter of the Wolf Moon: A Mystery (Alex McKnight Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Steve Hamilton returns with another of Alex McKnight's "adventures" in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. McKnight is abrasive and arrogant at times but has the most endearing quality about him -- he's a real good friend. The thing that sets Hamilton's books apart from all the other mystery/thrillers out there is the setting. His descriptions of the cold weather are unparelleled. In this book, Alex takes a ride on a snowmobile and "he isn't exactly the driver." He ends up in the hospital a few times but readers of this series know that you can't keep Alex McKnight down. In the first book, A Cold Day in Paradise, we learn of Alex' expertise in the field of baseball. In this book, he's a hockey goalie. Maybe he'll be a downhill skier in the next book. This is a quick read and a rewarding one. Hamilton is a terrific writer and doesn't lose you for one minute. He doesn't disappoint his fans with this second book.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful start to a new series!, February 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Winter of the Wolf Moon: A Mystery (Alex McKnight Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The only problem with this series is that Mr. Hamilton cannot possibly write the books fast enough to keep me happy! Once again he evokes my home territory with love and with fear- his descriptions of the weather and its effects on his human characters are dead on perfect. This is a man to watch because his books are just going to get better and better. I am just waiting to see how he handles an Upper Peninsula summer because he wrote so well of the awful winters we have that I actually turned the heat up in the house as I read the book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zero at the Bone, March 29, 2001

By	sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Alex McKnight's second outing is a little more light-hearted than his first. He is still an accident waiting to happen, but he's getting a grip. The action again takes place during winter in Michigan's Upper Peninsula right on Lake Superior. The author can and does give us a whole new definition of cold.

The story line is a stretch at times, and some things are never satisfactorily explained. It is more than surreal to meet a cultivated Russian gentleman in an ice shack in the wilds of upper Michigan. We are never told how and why he is there. Mr. Hamilton is a very good writer and paces the story well. There are no "dead" spots where nothing happens and the story stagnates. The reader's interest is engaged at all times with the interesting characters, Alex's actions and reactions, and the descriptive passages. What I needed is a more coherent plot that doesn't fall flat at the end.

I'm looking forward to Steve Hamilton's future efforts. He is too good a writer to disappoint us.