Tag: Steve Hamilton

Steve Hamilton’s Alex McKnight is Back!! Yeah!

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Dead Man Running - Steve Hamilton

 

Back in July, I wrote a post to both remind myself and to let readers know that books from three of my favorite authors were being released in August. The three authors ,whose books were being released on August 21st, were Karin Slaughter, William Kent Krueger and Steve Hamilton.

Thanks to the post I remembered to go to my library’s website and request the books. At the end of last week, the books from William Kent Krueger and Steve Hamilton became available. My hold position for the Karin Slaughter release is 47 of 57. I guess we see who the favorite is! Folks don’t know what they’re missing out on, by not reading Krueger and Hamilton. Of course it works out well for me because I get to read the books!

Dead Man Running – Steve Hamilton

 

The first book I chose to read was Steve Hamilton’s Dead Man Running, book #11 in the Alex McKnight series.It ist he first McKnight book Hamilton has written in five years! In the interim, Hamilton created a new series. He has written two books in that series, The Second Life of Nick Mason and Exist Strategy. Both are great reads. You can read what I wrote about these books here and here.

Who is Alex McKnight?

Alex McKnight is an ex-Detroit police detective, who lives now in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Alex takes care of and rents four cabins that his father and her built. He has also worked as a private investigator..  Currently he is employed as a fugitive recovery agent.aka a bounty hunter.

Dead Man Running: the Story

The story opens when a couple of vacation in the Mediterranean Sea watch the security camera feed from their  home bedroom in Arizona.  They watch a stranger enter the bedroom disrobe and join the dead woman laying on their bed Soon the man is caught when he returns to the scene to be with the woman a second time. After the police had been notified.Lewis T Livermore  is caught. He confesses to killing five other women. Under questioning, he reveals that victim number seven is still out there alive. He will take them to him on one condition that Alex McKnight comes with them!!

So begins the worst nightmare of Alex’s life! As just about everything thatcould go wrong does. And Alex must chase a killer, that knows all about Alex, while Alex has no clue about his connection to the killer.

My Thoughts

There’s no doubt that once again Steve Hamilton has delivered a page-turning thriller. Hey, I read it in two days! But there were a couple of things that kept it from being a 5 out of 5 stars.

First, overall liked the fact that the story took Alex out of his element and left him on his own in Arizona, far from his Paradise , Michigan home. However, I still missed the Upper Michigan Peninsula and his usual cohorts. Jackie McLean owner of the Glasgow Inn, Vinnie LeBlanc and Leon Prucell Alex’s one-time PI partner.

Additionally, I could easily see where the connection was going to be I was just not sure what the connection was. Finally, it’s a little thing but the chase for Livermore took Alex back across the country. Along the way, Livermore Alex and FBI Agent Larkin were ambushed by Livermore. I don’t think that Alex ever questioned how Livermore knew exactly where they were??

The Bottomline

Anyway the bottom line is that the book is great. The twists and turns from the moment that Livermore leads Alex and the FBI into the canyons of Arizona through to the end kept me turning the pages at a very rapid clip!! I think the book can be read without reading the preceding books. Mainly, because of the setting and the lack of familiar people around Alex.  However, if you want a real treat find book #1 A Cold Day in Paradise and work your way through the series

Ah! I just looked over the Alex McKnight series here at Goodreads and I see that I haven’t Let It Burn book #10 in thee series. I need to read that book!

Post Update: I did read Let It Burn so I have read the whole series.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Steve Hamilton

Author’s Website
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Goodreads

Can Steve Hamilton’s Nick Mason Find His Exit Strategy?

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Exist Strategy – Steve Hamilton  (Nick Mason #2)

 

Exit Strategy is the second. book in the Nick Mason series from author Steve Hamilton. The Second Life of Nick Mason  was the first book in the series and it introduced readers to a different kind of hero. Nick Mason was a prisoner serving 25 years as the result of a robbery gone wrong. While in prison gang kingpin Darius Cole offers Nick his freedom, but not without a catch. The catch is that Nick has to carry out any mission assigned to him. And if he doesn’t hs ex-wife and nine-year old daughter will pay a heavy price. The missions – kill people who Cole needs dead!!

About the Books of Steve Hamilton

I have been a fan of Steve Hamilton and his character Alex McKnight since I read the second book in that series Winter of the Wolf. I had gone to the library to check out his first McKnight novel A Cold Day in Paradise but it was checked out. So I settled for Winter of the Wolf and I’ m glad I did because I have read every book since!!

From Steve Hamilton’s website:

About: Exit Strategy

Darius Cole has a problem, He has been granted a retrial based upon an Anonymous Juror violation. His problem is that  the two key witnesses that testified against him in his first trial twelve years ago are still around and ready to testify again! They both are in the Federal Witness Protection Program.

Like Darius Cole, Nick Mason has a problem. It is Darius Cole! Nick hates the life he has to lead. All he wants is to get back to living a normal life, particularly with his nine-year old daughter Adriana. That can’t ever happen unless Nick figures out an exit strategy from Darius.

So with that on his mind Nick is given an assignment kill the witness set to testify against Cole. Once gain it pains Nick to be directed to kill. Mason becomes more determined to break free of the clutches of Cole, but can he do it before the next assignment breaks him!

Bottom Line

Exit Strategy is a strong 4 star book for me. The book really has everything you’d want. An engaging main character in Nick Mason.There are also a ton of engaging secondary characters. They include  Mason’ daughter and ex-wife, Cole’s woman Diana who is Mason’s house mate. She is as much a prisoner of Cole’s as Mason is. There is also police detective Frank Sandoval. Sandoval has been on Mason’s trail since the crime that sent Mason to prison.

Then there is also a great storyline. Although I do think that some of Nick’s escapes during his missions were a little hard to believe. But those things are not enough to dampen my enthusiasm for the book. It certainly didn’t slow down the rapid reading pace that the book had me reading!! So Check it Out!!

Book 31 for 2017

The Second Life of Nick Mason – Steve Hamilton – The Start of a Great New Series

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The Second Life of Nick Mason - Steve Hamilton

Revision Note: Originally posted in September 2016, this review has been updated in 2026 to include the latest entries in the Nick Mason series.

The Second Life of Nick Mason  – Steve Hamilton

.I have been a fan of the novels of Steve Hamilton for many years now. The first Steve Hamilton book was Winter of the Wolf – Book #2 in the Alex McKnight series according to my records I read finished that book of Jun 7,2004. After finishing it, I quickly went to the library and checked out A Cold Day in Paradise -Book #1 in the series. I finished that book on June 12th of the same year! Needless to say I loved the books and the series ever since!!

In The Second Life of Nick Mason, Hamilton has created a great new anti-hero.in Nick Mason. Yesterday, I had lunch with an old (we are) high school classmate. We both talked about the fact that life is made up of choices. You make your choices and you live with them , always doing the best you can.

The Story

Well, Nick Mason throughout his life has made some bad choices. First to steal cars, then move unto burglary, and ultimately stealing from drug dealers. During that time, he made  a good choice, he married and had a daughter. But then the ultimate “easy” heist came along – he made the wrong decision. It was supposed to be easy heist, drive into the harbor, take on some cargo and then drive it to the new owner. Right decision! Don’t do it!  Nick’s decision do it! Of course doing it meant going against his pledge to his wife to stay clean.

But Nick decides this one caper is all he needs to make things better for his wife and daughter. Bad decision! When the heist goes south, it costs him everything, wife, his daughter and his freedom. The sentence 25 years!

After five years in prison, along comes Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind Cole is serving a double life term, but still runs his empire from his cell. He offers Nick a deal. All Nick has to do is whatever he’s told to do when the phone rings.

Nick accepts. His conviction is soon overturned and he walks out of prison a free man. But is he free, Cole says “It’s not freedom, it’s mobility!” He is given a new house, a new car and more.But soon the phone rings and he is asked to become a hitman, something totally new and abhorrent to Mason.

Soon, Nick is being chased by cops both good and bad! Nick is soon fighting not just to regain his old life, but to survive in his new life!!

Bottom Line: Highly Recommended

This book was a real-pager turner for me. I zipped through it in a day and a half and enjoyed every minute of the ride. I think Nick Mason is a terrific character, who is trapped between a rock and a hard place. He’s damned, if he does, and damned if he doesn’t. And while, what he does is wrong, he tries his damnedest it make it right! I for one was cheering for him!

Post Update 2026

Post Update 2026

Since I first wrote this post, Steve Hamilton has expanded the Nick Mason universe with two more gripping novels. Having followed his work since I first picked up Winter of the Wolf back in 2004, it’s been incredible to see how he transitioned from the Northwoods noir of Alex McKnight to this high-octane urban series.

Exit Strategy (Nick Mason #2, 2017): A relentless follow-up that proves Nick is truly “mobile, but not free.”

An Honorable Assassin (Nick Mason #3, 2024): This one felt a little different—the stakes are global as Nick is sent to target a high-level assassin. What really struck me, amidst the tension, was the interaction between Nick and the child he encounters. It reminded me why I cheer for him; despite the life he’s forced to lead, his heart is still intact.

 

Steve Hamilton - Author of the Second Life of Nick Mason

Links

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About Steve Hamilton

Steve Hamilton is one of only two authors to win the Edgar Award for Best First Novel (for A Cold Day in Paradise) and then later for Best Novel (for The Lock Artist). Known for his atmospheric prose and complex characters, Hamilton spent years developing the Alex McKnight series before launching the high-stakes world of Nick Mason. He currently lives in upstate New York with his wife and two children, where he continues to craft some of the most compelling crime fiction in the genre.

Reflecting on Hamilton’s career, he remains one of those “second tier” masters—the kind of writer you can always depend on for a tight, emotional, and perfectly paced story. I believe I’ve read every book he’s ever put out, and while the Alex McKnight series will always be my “first love” in his bibliography, Nick Mason has earned his place right alongside him on my shelf.

The Hunting Wind (Alex McKnight #3)- Steve Hamilton

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The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton was just as good the second time around!

One of the things that I have been doing on a fairly consistently this winter and into the spring is reading, I have set a goal that requires me to read books at a faster pace than last year and while i on a pace that is slightly slower than I need it to be, I am still reading at the same pace as last year finishing book 15 of the year just about on the same day as I finished book 15 last year!

Now one of the things that I did do recently that is out of the ordinary is that I reread a book! When ever my wife wants me to get rid of books she always says that I should get rid of them because I never reread a book! Well, while she will have to change that to you almost never reread a book, because I reread Steve Hamilton‘s The Hunting Wind a last week!

One of the reasons that I reread the book was that when I checked my Goodreads shelf for the book it was not there! The status was “want to read”!

When I started rereading the book which is book #3 in Steve Hamilton’s Alex McKnight series, I didn’t remember the storyline. The adventure begins when Alex’s former minor league teammate, from his days thirty years prior as a catcher with the Toledo Mud Hens, visits Alex’s home in Paradise, in Michigan’s upper peninsula and wants him to help find a girl he dated for ten days way back in 1971!

As Alex and Randy start their search for Maria who was the daughter of a fortune-teller Madame Valeska, they discover that Maria is in hiding. Maria is hiding from her dead husbands former business partner, who Maria believes murdered her husband and now is out to get her! But soon it appears that all is not as it seems to be and maybe it never was??? I think that it took until somewhere in the middle of the book that things started to become familiar and even when they did things still weren’t all that familiar, i.e. I didn’t remember the ending, which by the way is very good!!

Steve Hamilton’s first book to feature Alex McKnight a former Detroit police officer for eight years,now living in Paradise, MI, A Cold Day in Paradise won both an Edgar and Shamus award which was an unprecedented feat! The series is now up to book number 10 Let It Burn, which I think I once checked out of the library but did not read!  Alex is a great character and the surrounding cast in the series is also very good.  While Alex’s friend Vinnie is not featured in this book Jackie and the Glasgow Inn are present.

Bottom line: The Hunting Wind is a real page-turner even when I kinda knew what was going to happen. Like I said Alex is a great character and the story line twists and turns enough to keep the pages flying by. So check it out!

As for rereading a book it was a pleasant experience. It appears that I most likely read The Hunting Wind in 2004, as that’s, when I read books 1,2 and 4. So maybe the key to rereading books is that it works real well for books I’ve read 10 or more years ago!! Let’s see that would put most of the Robert Ludlum in play and many, many more!!

Book 20 of 2012 – Die a Stranger – Steve Hamiton

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In 2004 I read my first Steve Hamilton Alex McKnight novel, Winter Of The Wolf Moon, the second book in the series. The only reason that I read that novel first was that the award winning Cold Day in Paradise was checked out of the library! But after finishing Book 2,  Book 1 followed closely, and I’ve been a fan of the series ever since! Yesterday the 9th  book in the series Die A Stanger became book 20  of 2012! Alex McKnight is an ex-Detroit cop who, with a bullet lodged near his heart, rents cabins in Paradise, a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  This installment of the series focuses on Alex’s best friend, Vinnie LeBlanc. It started as a bad week for Vinnie, his mother the respected leader of the Bay Mills Reservation had died. On her death bed, she mistakes Vinnie for his father, who had long ago  abandoned Vinnie and his siblings. Later that night Vinnie a teetotaler because of this father, meets Alex at their favorite inn, The Glasgow and orders a drink, resulting in the first night he ever got drunk! But that same night, after parting ways with Alex….(from Hamilton’s website)

 A plane lands on a deserted Upper Peninsula airstrip, late at night. Five dead bodies are found the next morning.

And now Vinnie LeBlanc is missing.

Vinnie is an Ojibwa tribal member, a blackjack dealer at the Bay Mills Casino, and he just might be Alex’s best friend. He’s come through for Alex more than once in the past, and he never ever misses a day of work. So Alex can’t help but be worried…..

The next morning Alex finds a stranger in Vinnie’s cabin, it turns out to be Vinnie long lost father Lou, returned to find and help his son! Together Alex and Lou set out on a race against time to find and save Vinnie.

The book is written in Hamilton’s quick no nonsense style, full of wit and humor with plenty of twists and turns.  McKnight is the narrator and he knows his limits like in this passage:

N0, stay positive, I thought. You’re gonna find a way out of this. Even if you have to do something stupid, all by yourself. You’r certainly good at being stupid. 

I certainly think that you can read this book without reading the others, but I am sure that once you do you’ll find yourself wanting more of the series! Here’s a sample of Hamilton’s writing from the start of Chapter Two………

 

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Book 19 – Misery Bay – Steve Hamilton

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So I was all set last night to write about my run. How another rock band Voodoo Circle and their new album Black Heart Syndrome was the soundtrack for the 4.2 mile run complete in just under a ten minute per mile pace (which was not bad because I went uphill for parts of the run), but alas that was not to be! I sat down started to read Book 19 Steve Hamilton‘s latest Alex McKnight novel Misery Bay and continued reading until I went to bed,(except for that 1/2 hour nap). I finished the book at lunchtime today.<u> Misery Bay</u> is the eighth book in the McKnight series and the first since 2006 and is a worthy addition to the series.

The story starts when Alex gets a visit from an old nemesis Sault Ste. Marie police chief Roy Maven, who has appeared in past books. Maven asks Alex to do a job for his friend Charles “Raz” Razniewski. Razniewski and Maven were on the State Police force years earlier and recently Razniewki’s son had committed suicide. Razniewski wants McKnight to go to his son’s college and talk to some friends and generally try to find out why his son killed himself.  Alex does just that and when he returns he really doesn’t have any reason for the suicide. When he goes to report his findings to the senior Razniewski, who is staying at Maven’s home, he finds Razniewki laying on Maven’s kitchen floor with his throat slashed! The FBI soon sends two agents to investigate “Raz’s murder because he is now a U.S. Marshall. The agents soon determine that the murder is probably retaliation for some of the unsavory, well connected criminals Raz has put away. But Maven and Alex don’t think so and set of to investigate the suicide and murder. Soon they  connect another police officer’s son suicide to the case and the story moves on from there!

I love everything about this series. The setting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which sounds like a wonderful place to visit (maybe for the three days of summer), the characters Alex, Maven, Alex’s friend Vinnie, Leon Purcell and Jackie, owner of the Glasgow Inn. The stories are always interesting and the pages usually fly by! While this the eight in the series, I think that it can be read alone and then the reader can go back and find out about some of the earlier events. Like how Alex’s cabin burned down and what happened to Alex’s love Natalie Reynaud:

Before I lit the match, I took one f the slats of wood and I rubbed the spot where the blood had seeped in forever. I said good-bye to Natalie Reynaud one more time. I kissed the wood once and then put it back on the pile.

So go and visit Alex and the residents of Paradise, Michigan and I’m sure it won’t be your  last visit!!

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