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.