Steve Hamilton

It's a beautiful place to die... The latest superb novel from EDGAR AWARD-winning author of THE LOCK ARTIST. In the dead of winter a young man is found hanging from a tree on a remote shore of Lake Superior known as Misery Bay. There's no evidence of foul play. Nothing to suggest it's anything other than a tragic teenage suicide. Devastated and unbelieving, the boy's father just has one question: why? Finding the answer is not a job ex-cop Alex McKnight relishes, but loss is something he understands only too well. When he starts to question the local cops about the suicide, Alex's instincts instantly tell him something is very, very wrong. And that he's unwittingly opening a door into a nightmare world of madness, murder and twisted revenge...

On a frozen January night, a young man hangs himself in a lonely corner of the Upper Peninsula, in a place they call Misery Bay. Alex McKnight does not know this young man, and he won't even hear about the suicide until two months later, when the last person Alex would ever expect comes to him for help. What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers will turn into a nightmare of sudden violence and bloody revenge, and a race against time to catch a ruthless and methodical killer. McKnight knows all about evil. Mobsters, drug dealers, hit men--he's seen them all, and they've taken away almost everything he's ever loved. But none of them could have ever prepared him for the darkness he's about to face. A New York Times bestseller, Michigan Notable Book, and Boston Globe Best Crime Book of the Year, Steve Hamilton's Misery Bay marks the return of one of crime fiction's most critically acclaimed series.

A Cold Day in Paradise won both the Edgar and Shamus awards for Best First Novel, launching Steve Hamilton into the top ranks of today's crime writers. Other than the bullet lodged near his heart, former Detroit cop Alex McKnight thought he had put the nightmare of his partner's death and his own near-fatal injury behind him. After all, the man convicted of the crimes has been locked away for years. But in the small town of Paradise, Michigan, where McKnight has traded his badge for a cabin in the woods, a murderer with the same unmistakable trademarks appears to be back. McKnight can't understand who else would know the intimate details of the old murders. And it seems like it'll be a frozen day in Hell before McKnight can unravel truth from deception in a town that's anything but Paradise.

Prize-winning crime author Steve Hamilton's hugely commercial mainstream breakout tells the extraordinary story of a safe-cracker trying to unlock the key to his past.

The Lock Artist is the winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel and a Alex Award winner. Steve Hamilton steps away from his Edgar Award-winning Alex McKnight series to introduce a unique new character, unlike anyone you've ever seen in the world of crime fiction." I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me. But you can call me Mike." Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it's a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an eight-hundred pound safe ... he can open them all. It's an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever close to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.

A superb stand-alone thriller from Edgar Award-winning author Steve HamiltonJoe Trumble is a probation officer with a tragedy in his past. Two years ago his fiancée Laurel was brutally killed three days before their wedding. No one has yet been caught. As the story opens, Joe is heading for a blind date with Marlene, a jewellery designer, his first encounter with a woman since Laurel's death. The evening is a success, but the next day Marlene is reported missing. Two days later her body is found. As the last person to see her alive, Joe is at the very least a material witness and, as the evidence mounts and another body is found, suspicion begins to centre on him.

A superb new Alex McKnight thriller from this popular Edgar Award winnerIt's the most miserable summer anyone can remember in Paradise, Michigan. Alex and his occasional partner Leon are outside the local casino waiting to see the 4th July firework celebrations when they witness a spectacular boat crash. They drag four men from the wreck and revive them. When Alex's friend Vinnie is later beaten up by four strangers, it doesn't take Alex long to figure out who they might be. Vinnie suspects that these strangers have been preying on some of the local tribes people, pressuring them to make fraudulent claims for medicine, which the men then sell on at street value to drug addicts. When Alex and Vinnie begin to investigate, the men are forced into desperate action. One of them winds up dead, while the others are determined to prevent Alex and Vinnie from cutting off their drug supply. These dangerous newcomers receive a warm welcome from one quarter though - the criminal fraternity. At least Alex can be certain that his cop girlfriend, Natalie, is safe in Toronto, working on a long-term undercover operation against a group of gun-runners. But Alex doesn't realise the true nature of the op and its link to the drug-traffickers; nor is he aware that Natalie is perilously close to having her cover blown. Then she comes face-to-face with three men who could be used to redefine the word vicious...

A superb new Alex McKnight novel from Edgar award-winning author Steve Hamilton. It is February in Paradise, Michigan, and for the first time since moving there, Alex is taking a hard look at his life. This is what happens when a middle-aged solitary guy falls in love. The woman is Natalie Reynaud, an officer from the Ontario Provincial Police whose partner has recently been killed. As far as the OPP are concerned, Natalie is responsible for her partner's death. She needs a break - from the past as well as the present. Alex and Natalie spend a romantic weekend together, but just as everything seems to be going so well, they are disturbed by someone who knows all about Natalie, and about a dark episode buried in her family's past which still drives men to violence. As much as Natalie doesn't want Alex to get involved, there's no way he can let her face this danger alone. After all, he's been beaten up and shot at, all to help a friend in need. How much further would he go for the woman he loves?

'The calendar said April, but April in Paradise is still cold enough to hurt you ' - a terrific Alex McKnight novel from award-winning Steve Hamilton. Alex McKnight is sipping his beer in the Glasgow Inn when Randy Wilkins, a friend from his days in Detroit, turns up out of the blue. Finally he gets to the point. Randy's in love with a girl called Maria and wants to find her. The only problem being that he last saw her thirty years ago. It's a test of friendship to say the least and, at first, Alex can't think of anything worse. But loyalty gets the better of him and together Alex and Randy go back to Detroit where, as a police officer, Alex got shot. The bullet is still lodged in his chest. Their search for Maria leads them back to the past - a strange country which is unsavoury for Randy and painful for Alex as they hunt for Randy's lost love and Alex's lost life.

A breathtakingly chilling novel of suspense from the author of A COLD DAY IN PARADISEIt's winter in Paradise, a small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on the frozen borders of Canada. After ploughing the new snow from his drive every morning, Alex McKnight is content to stay warm in front of the fireplace at the Glasgow Inn with a bottle of his favourite Canadian beer. Once a catcher in the minor leagues, later a Detroit police officer, Alex gave the private eye business a try and it ended up being the 'second worst' mistake of his life. So when a young native American woman of the Ojibwa tribe comes to him for help, Alex is reluctant to become involved. Nor does he want anything to do with goofy Leon Prudell, who wants to get back in the PI business and has fixed on Alex as his partner. But before you can say 'storm warning', events have spun out of Alex's control. Soon he'll have to deal with an entire team of drug-crazed hockey goons, two mysterious men wearing guns and hunting caps, and a cold-blooded killer from the other side of the world. Perhaps Alex needs that new partner after all...