- Hamilton, Steve.
Misery Bay.
New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2011.
ISBN 978-0-312-38043-4.
-
I haven't been reading many mysteries recently, but when I
happened to listen to a
podcast interview
with the author of this book set in the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan, less than twelve hours before departing on a trip
to precisely that destination, I could only conclude that
the Cosmic Coincidence Control Centre was telling me to
read this book, so I promptly downloaded the
Kindle edition and read it
after arrival. I'm glad I did.
This is the eighth novel in the author's Alex McKnight series,
but it is perfectly accessible to readers (like myself) who
start here. The story is recounted in the first person by
McKnight, a former Detroit cop who escaped the cruel streets
of that failed metropolis after a tragic episode, relocating
to the town of Paradise in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where
he intends to make a living renting cabins, but finds himself
reluctantly involved as a private investigator in crimes which
cross his path.
In the present book, McKnight agrees to look into the
circumstances of the apparent suicide of the son of a
friend and former colleague of McKnight's nemesis, police
chief Roy Maven. This errand, undertaken on behalf of
a distraught father who cannot imagine any motive for his
son's taking his life, spirals into what appears to be a
baffling cluster of suicides and murders involving
current and former police officers and their children.
McKnight seeks to find the thread which might tie
these seemingly unrelated events together, along with a
pair of FBI agents who, being feds, seem more concerned
with protecting their turf than catching crooks.
Along with many twists and turns as the story develops and
gripping action scenes, Hamilton does a superb job evoking
the feel of the Upper Peninsula, where the long distances,
sparse population, and extreme winters provide a background
more like Montana than something you'd expect east of the
Mississippi. In the end, the enigma is satisfyingly resolved
and McKnight, somewhat the worse for wear, is motivated to turn
the next corner in his life where, to be sure, other mysteries
await.
June 2011 