After I added [b:The Lock Artist: A Novel|6811221|The Lock Artist A Novel|Steve Hamilton|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41-XSNwtHwL.SL75.jpg|7018945] to my To-Read queue, Steve asked if I had read any of author [a:Steve Hamilton|9891|Steve Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1234230160p2/9891.jpg]'s Alex McKnight series. I had not, so I added it to my queue and found it at the library just a few days later. A Cold Day In Paradise opens the series and it is one excellent read!

Alex McKnight is an ex-cop from Detroit who moved back to his old summering place, Paradise, Michigan, where his dad built a set of hunting and fishing camps. He left the police force after a particularly violent episode of his and his partner's and lives a quiet life now. But a milquetoast friend with a gambling problem and his lawyer convince McKnight to help out when the friend is a suspect in a couple of bookmaker murders. Some "locked room" problems ensue (like the fact that the prime suspect is purportedly locked away in jail!), as do some pretty brutal shootouts, while all the time McKnight is trying to figure out a past relationship.

I liked the writing a lot. It wasn't hackneyed at all, leavened with some humor and some pathos. Once again, though, I thought the plot behind the murders to be wildly complicated and was sure there must have been a better way to solve the "problem". And there were a couple times that I had an better idea of what he should have done next. But it didn't get in the way of the action and I enjoyed McKnight's take on the world. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series, [b:Winter of the Wolf Moon|785420|Winter of the Wolf Moon (The Second Alex McKnight Mystery)|Steve Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178328866s/785420.jpg|771418].