North of Nowhere: An Alex McKnight Novel (Alex McKnight Mysteries)
That Steve Hamilton has won a following by writing private-eye novels  about a guy who has no interest in being a PI is testament both to his  storytelling talents and readers' hunger for fresh approaches to this genre.North of Nowherefinds ex-Detroit cop Alex McKnight celebrating his 49th  birthday by retreating to his cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he  laments his personal and career failures. Eventually, though, McKnight is coaxed  out with the prospect of a poker game, hosted by wealthy contractor Winston  Vargas, only to have the game interrupted by armed men in masks, who empty  Vargas's safe and leave clues suggesting that Alex and his fellow players  engineered the heist.Now, McKnightreallyhas reason to feel sorry for himself. But instead,  he goes after the gunmen, along the way swapping sucker punches with Vargas,  shaking down his former detective partner (who videotaped the thieves' escape),  and discovering that even his friends harbor secrets that could get them all  killed.This fourth McKnight outing (after 2001'sThe Hunting Wind) is a fine  showcase for Hamilton's lithesome prose. The pace is brisk, the episodes often  humorous, and the tale brims with an infectious reverence for its natural  setting ("God help me, on a summer night when the sun is going down, it is the  most beautiful place on earth"). If Hammett moved the detective story from the  drawing room into the mean streets, Hamilton has proved that the north woods  have their own potential for homicidal intrigue.--J. Kingston Pierce