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Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight is a man who simply tries to do the right thing while ironically winding up at cross-purposes with the law. His efforts to be a law enforcement officer or even a private investigator --- as documented in past McKnight novels --- have been less than successful, so he has attempted to concentrate on keeping his small group of vacation rentals occupied in the beautiful but frequently harsh Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Even as he does so, however, he is drawn, increasingly reluctantly, into the trouble that seeks him out and the heartbreak that frequently accompanies it.
A STOLEN SEASON, perhaps the penultimate chapter in the McKnight opus, begins with McKnight yearning for Natalie Reynaud, his significant other, who is working a risky undercover operation in Toronto. It is an unseasonably cool and miserable Fourth of July in the Upper Peninsula, and becomes even more inhospitable after McKnight assists in rescuing three strangers involved in a boating accident. It seems that the men lost something of value to them during the mishap, and they believe that McKnight and his best friend Vinnie may have pilfered it.
McKnight slowly comes to realize that all that he holds dear is in terrible danger and that the calm and quiet of his home is about to be shattered, yet again, by forces that seem to inexorably seek him out. Hamilton's prose is presented so smoothly and done so well that it easily can escape the reader how well Hamilton does what he does. There are moments in the novel that are stunning in their irrevocability and leave one re-reading the same passage a number of times --- not as the result of ill clarity, but out of disbelief as to what occurs. Yet Hamilton manages to conclude the book on an optimistic note that is realistic, notwithstanding what has gone before.
Those unfamiliar with Hamilton and McKnight can easily pick up the thread of this series with A STOLEN SEASON; anyone who has been away for a while will read this fine work and wonder why they ever missed any of the previous volumes. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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