A STOLEN SEASON is my first book by Steve Hamilton. Although it comes in the middle of his Alex McKnight series, it is also my first book in the series. So I can say this for Hamilton upfront: it takes skill to write a book in a series as if it is a standalone. That's how it was for me, no confusion.

But I wasn't entirely happy with A STOLEN SEASON. First, the two main crimes in this novel seem like too much of a coincidence to each other. Even though I decided to just go with this storyline, I still had some problems with it.

Sometimes the story drags. I found myself skipping through some paragraphs, as a result, especially when he describes McKnight unloading boxes of guns.

More than anything, though, McKnight is a terribly frustrating main character. Over and over, he butts in, insists on taking things into his own hands when he should be leaving it to the police. I think Hamilton means for the reader to sympathize with McKnight, and I mostly did. But because he is always looking for trouble, I just wanted to clobber him sometimes. If I were one of his three friends, especially Vinnie, I would steer clear of him.

If you enjoy reading about Michigan, that's a good reason to try a Steve Hamilton book. I liked that about A STOLEN SEASON, although I wish Hamilton concentrated more on the Lower Peninsula, which I am more familiar with. ( )

A Stolen Season starts out on two fronts. On the one end, Alex McKnight unintentionally gets involved with some unsavory characters when he and his friend Leon save three guys in a boating accident from drowning. It later turns out that the guys are mixed up in some illegal drug trafficking between the United States and Canada. Because something of value was lost during the accident, the guys think that either Alex, or one of his friends, have it. They start putting the pressure on Alex, and he immediately begins to hit back, not realizing the caliber of people that he's dealing with and how dangerous they are. Alex will underestimate the guys and ultimately find himself standing on a bluff with a handgun pointed at his face, waiting to die. On the second front, Alex's girlfriend, Natalie Reynaud, has moved to Toronto to do undercover work for the police department there. Her job is to get close to the girlfriend of one of the most terrifying men that she's ever met and to hopefully break up a ring of gun smugglers. Something eventually happens that brings the two fronts together, driving Alex McKnight to the edge of despair at the tragedy that has erupted in his life.

Steve Hamilton has created a series that's every bit as good as anything James Lee Burke or Robert Parker has written. Once you get started on one of the "Alex McKnight" books, you'll want to read them all. ( )

This is my favorite series and I have looked forward to each one in the series. This time I anticipated some of the action. I recommend this series to everyone and I usually tell them that it isn't important to read them in order but this book is the first one that I would say that it would be better if they read the last book or two instead of jumping in here. ( )

Read 6/8/11. This is the 7th book in the series, the most current, with an 8th book, Misery Bay, out yesterday; MB is the first new book in the series in almost 5 years, and it seems that the author may have taken a break at the right moment. I have skipped two, and while I have enjoyed the series to this point, I may not continue, and I am unlikely to read the two I've skipped. (I've not read The Lock Artist yet, an Edgar winner, a stand alone novel, and I look forward to it.) With this book I felt I was reading too much of the same thing, and I didn't get too excited about the story. Deals with running weapons across the border, some bad guys from Detroit, another ultra powerful bad guy from Canada who is dispatched rather conveniently I thought given what a super dude he was supposed to be. And Alex loses a close friend, and mourns in a manner that I thought was uncharacteristic. So I didn't think that this was a super book from the author, but maybe I've just grown tired of the series. ( )

Great book