Steve Hamilton

Fiction 1998/ 277 pages

I was searching around for a mystery series … at least to read a few.  Two of my friends suggested Steve Hamilton, and the first book in his series is A Cold Day in Paradise.   The setting was very appealing to, as I was born and raised in Detroit.  But the setting alone would not have made it a good read.  It needed some good authorship, too, and this book was a page turner!  I am definitely going on to the second book in the series.

Alex McKnight was a cop in Detroit when he was shot three times, and his partner was killed.  Alex still carries a bullet in his body, too close to his heart to be removed.  That was 14 years ago.  Since then, Alex has taken his 3/4 disability pay and moved to Paradise to be a private investigator.  Paradise is a small town on the shore of Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

So how is it that Maximillian Rose, who is still in prison for his crimes against McKnight and his partner, had decided now is the time to seek revenge? We really don’t know how the timing came about, but clearly the effort was being put forth, with a couple of seemingly unrelated murders as the non-Rose perpetrator gets closer to McKnight.  Actually, I thought the explanation of the conclusion was a bit unclear.  At least it was to me.

My major issue with Hamilton’s work is his total lack of women characters.  The only one with any part to play at all in the novel was Sylvia, the woman Alex has/had an affair with.  I don’t know if Hamilton is sexist and doesn’t think a cop or a technician can be a woman, or if he just has no capacity to develop and write women characters.  That will be my litmus test in the second book of his that I read.

Yes, I recommend A Cold Day in Paradise for its pure fun as a mystery.

July 2026