Winter of the Wolf Moon (Alex McKnight, #2)

Winter of the Wolf Moon (Alex McKnight #2)

by
3.88 of 5 stars 3.88  ·  rating details  ·  1,041 ratings  ·  85 reviews
Steve Hamilton’s novels starring ex-cop and sometime-P.I. Alex McKnight have won multiple awards and appeared on bestseller lists nationwide. And when you start reading Winter of the Wolf Moon, you will instantly understand why. . . .

When a young woman from the Ojibwa tribe asks McKnight for shelter from her violent boyfriend, McKnight agrees. But after letting her stay in...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published February 14th 2000 by Minotaur Books (first published 2000)
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve HamiltonBetter Read Than Dead by Victoria LaurieKiller Insight by Victoria LaurieThe Chocolate Puppy Puzzle by JoAnna CarlGifts and Consequences by Daniel  Coleman
Books set in Michigan
29th out of 213 books — 41 voters
The Lock Artist by Steve HamiltonDeath on the Barrens by George James GrinnellA Journey Through Literary America by Thomas HummelI, Alex Cross by James PattersonTake One by Karen Kingsbury
The Three Weissmanns of Westport
13th out of 23 books — 1 voter


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,413)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Lilocosa
The main character here is the setting--Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It was a great book to read on a hot summer day because, trust me, you'll be chilled all the way through from the author's descriptions of the weather and the landscape! If you don't live in the northern Midwest, this setting will probably seem as alien as the moon, but it is accurate down to the smallest detail.
I really enjoyed the "official" main character, Alex McNight, and his friends. Their personalities and conversations...more
Holly Boyd
This is the 2nd book in the Alex McKnight series. I'm always looking for a good series with characters I like or at least find interesting enough that I want to know more about them. Alex McKnight is a former Detroit police officer that has to give up his job after his partner is killed on the job and he is wounded and ends up with a bullet that is lodged to close to his heart to be removed. The books are set in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and so far have taken place in the dead of winter. P...more
Mary Sue
This is the second book in the series and I have high hopes for those that follow. This one is as good or better than the first. Our hero, Alex McKnight experiences fifty shades of cold in the book. It opens at a hockey game that Alex, at age 48, was promised would be a non-checking game. The cold continues with the relentless falling of snow in the Upper Penninsula. Alex plows, and plows, and wades through drifts and crawls under buildings, visits an ice fisherman's shanty and makes an unbeliev...more
Harry
Cautionary note: this review was written after reading the first novel in this series. Series reviews are fickled, unpredictable, and sometimes downright wrong if you base the entire series review on just the first puzzled bite. Maybe the cold weather outside's is making me grumpy, or I just don't wanna go all the way downtown to work, or maybe I just don't feel like pouring honey over my cereal. Whatever!

Not that this isn't a good read. I finished it in record time. Frowning for an acceptable...more
Andrew
Points for an interesting setting. (Michigan's U.P.) Points for an interesting character/relationship. (Leon the wanna be private eye slash snowmobile salesman) Points for a solid story line. Deduct a couple for the all-too-common implausibility factor of lack of consequences surrounding our hero's involvement in multiple crimes, and you have a solid three-star "worth reading" mystery.

Perhaps it's the curse of the creator of something really good for that good thing to be the basis for all futur...more
Norm
After reading "The Lock Artist" I found this book. I haven't read the first book in the series, but it didn't hurt at all.

The book takes place in the UP of Michigan, and even though it's 90 degrees here in Illinois this week, I was shivering. Really, this is a well told story, and the character, a former cop turned reluctant PI is a page turner. Or a button pusher if you're into the electronic readers.

I'm reading the third book in the series now, and one of these days I'll find the first one.

Jonathan
"Winter Of The Wolf Moon" was really good. I whipped through it in about 3 days - exactly what I needed to read. There was at least one plot point (where "the bag" was hidden) that I guessed well before Alex McKnight figured it out, but besides that, I was kept guessing pretty well.

In this 2nd book of the McKnight series, after Alex has an altercation on the hockey rink (he plays goalie!) with her boyfriend, Diane seeks him out for help escaping from his clutches. He stashes her in one of his ca...more
Jan
THIS IS MORE OF A NOVELLA THAN A NOVEL. THE CHARACTERS WERE INTERESTING AND YOU CARE ABOUT THEM RIGHT AWAY, BUT THE STORY IS THIN. I HAVE TO WONDER HOW HE GOT THIS PUBLISHED. MAYBE THINGS WERE NOT AS DIFFICULT BACK WHEN THIS CAME OUT, OR HE SELF-PUBLISHED. HE’S A GOOD WRITER, BUT NOT MUCH OF A PLOT. I SUPPOSE IT’S FINE IF YOU WANT A VERY QUICK READ, ALTHOUGH FOR SUCH A SHORT BOOK TOO MUCH OF WHAT IS THERE IS DEVOTED TO “CHIT CHAT” AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT RATHER THAN PLOT ITSELF.
Michael
After loving The Lock Artist, I wanted to give Hamilton's series a second change.

This is better than the first book in the series, but still not great. I hold out hope that it'll get better.

The main improvement is that there's a little more levity in this book. Lonnie comes back and adds some much welcome comic relief. McKnight still takes himself *way* too seriously, but it's improving.

There's also a nice thread left hanging for future installments. I'm sure I'll get to them eventually.
Cindy
Maybe it's because I live in Michigan, have been through Paradise and visited the Soo, but I count Steve Hamilton's books as among my favorites. They're not profound, no amazing revelations found within, just a good, simple murder mystery story with a smart aleck-y protagonist, Alex McKnight. Though it's a series, Hamilton reviews enough details of others that they can easily be read out of order, though perhaps starting with the very first, A Cold Day in Paradise, is not such a bad idea.
Jerry
This one will keep you cool on a hot summer day! I came to this after reading and loving The Lock Artist. #2 in the Alex McKnight series, I haven't yet read #1, but this stands on its own quite well. Set in the accumulating snow that defines winter in Michigan's upper peninsula. A woman goes missing, and the bodies start piling up. Throw in some hockey, Canadian beer, snowmobiles and tribal matters of the Ojibwa. Not as much a whodoneit, as a setting and character piece.
William
Story takes place in Michigan upstate peninsula, and Canada. It has scenes from hockey games and plenty of cold weather. I could relate to both. The story was good and the characters interesting. However, it was the setting that attracted me most. I liked the fact that the main character when hospitalized for injuries sustained or for frost bite, stayed there and did not stupidly get up before be dismissed like many pocket book heros would.
Amy
May 05, 2010 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: mystery
I'm a sucker for Michigan regional mysteries and the Alex McKnight series is no exception. The setting is the Upper Peninsulas in Michigan and the private eye is a former Detroit cop. Steve Hamilton's description of the UP and the residents is spot-on and I think would appeal to Michiganders and non alike.
This novel incorporates more of the Ojibwa Indians living in the UP and McKnight's friendship with one of them. It is fast-paced and a lively read.
Bayneeta
Hockey, snow mobiles, and Ojibway Indians. Again the location in the Upper Pennisula and the descriptions of the cold are a big part of the appeal of this second in the Alex McKnight mystery series. There are two DEA agents named 'Champagne' and 'Urbania,' so I was surprised to learn Hamilton is a University of Michigan graduate rather than from the University of Illinois.
LJ
WINTER OF THE WOLF MOON-G+
Hamilton, Steve-

Ex-cop and sometime P.I. Alex McKnight endures the bitter winter of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in his log cabin with warm fires and cold Molsons. When Dorothy Parrish, a young Ojibwa woman, asks him for shelter from her violent boyfriend, McKnight agrees. But after secreting her in one of his cabins, he finds her gone the next morning. McKnight suspects vicious, hockey-playing Lonnie Bruckman of abducting the woman. But his search for her brings on more...more
Mike Debaptiste
This is the second Alex McKnight book. Can it really be better than the first one? You betcha! In fact, they are going to make a movie about it. It's deep winter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it's cold, cold, cold! Near zero and below, and Alex gets involved in weird mystery concerning a missing Indian woman from the nearby reservation, a manic thug hockey player, nasty Russian drug dealers, and lots of goings-on back and forth across the border. This book really rocks! It never stops...more
Robin
I don't live in Michigan, am not a hockey fan, have never ridden on a snow mobile, and have never met an Ojibway Indian but I loved this book. It is fast paced enough that I didn't even think about how it was going to end. Sometimes when I enjoy an author's first book the second book turns out to be a disappointment but not this time.
Keri
Alex McKnight is just sitting at his usual watering hole minding his own business with his good freind Vinnie comes up as asked him to fill in for his over thirty hockey team. They need a goalie for one night. Alex finally agrees and ends up with alot of aches and pains. He also is approached by a woman that was with the opposing team from that night. Only she is in trouble and asking for Alex's help. He brings her to one of his cabins, but by morning she is gone with no clues as to who as her....more
Vivian
Second book in a series set in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and starring former policeman Alex McKnight. Plenty of action, great characters and I love the way that snow and arctic cold weather add an element of danger to the story. Quite an entertaining page turner. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
Judy
Always fun to read a story that takes place where I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The author does an amazing job of describing the cold, winter weather and the isolation that is a big part of living here. I have been to Paradise several times and always enjoy reading about the interesting characters there.
Bernie Charbonneau
Alex McKnight is turning out to be one of those can't miss book characters. This is the second book in a continuing series that involves this former Detroit area cop. In a previous review by another reader it was mentioned that he started this book and had no problem following the storyline of the main character. This may be true, but do yourself a favor and read the first novel, as there are a lot of references to the back story, it will definitely fill in his background.
This plot was very goo...more
Ann
These Alex McKnight mysteries are good, quick, fun reads. I enjoy all the Michigan and UP references. I'm often surprised by the turn of the plot. I haven't been able to easily figure out who dunnit till nearly the end of the story! I think the writing is getting better with each one.
Caro
Trying to figure out why I am liking this series and have concluded that the books are quick, easy reads; the setting is well drawn and interesting; and that in each one he weaves in a character that you anticipate will show up in the next one (clever man).
Rick
A chance encounter with some nice folks turned me onto Mr. Hamilton. This was my first one and am now reading Blood is the sky. Mysteries and the UP is a good combo for me. I will probably read all of his books. They are very readable, fast paced and fun.
Jennifer
This book is well-written and atmospheric, but the main character's no Sherlock Holmes. Alex McKnight repeatedly makes wrong assumptions, walks into traps, gets beaten up and/or arrested. Really a lousy detective -- this should have been called a Leon Prudell Mystery.
Craig Faustus  Buck
I'm a big fan of Steve Hamilton and this book is another terrific Alex McKnight story, more suspense than mystery. I believe I've only got two left to read and am dreading the end. I can only hope he can write faster than I can read.
Laura Hoffman Brauman
Solid mystery -- McNight is a reluctant private investigator, former Detroit detective living in the UP in Michigan. Good dialogue, intereseting characters. McNight has a knack for getting himself in over his head, and this book is no exception. Thought it was even better than the first.
Chris
Much reading enjoyment for a "Yooper." Steve Hamilton enjoys taking to extremes the natural elements of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And, anyone who has traveled from Paradise to the "Soo" understands the journey Alex constantly makes to and fro.
Marianne
This is a really good series so far. I like the main character Alex McKnight. Made me think a lot about a part of the country that I know nothing about. Had to get out my trusty atlas. I shivered just reading this book!
Joanne
Steve Hamilton has a series of books about an ex-Detroit cop who now lives in the Upper Peninsula. This is the second in the series. Reading about relative local areas is interesting. Not bad stories, either.
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 47 48 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
Winter Of The Wolf Moon (Alex McKnight, #2)
Winter of the Wolf Moon: An Alex McKnight Novel (Paperback)
Winter Of The Wolf Moon (Alex McKnight, #2)
Winter Of The Wolf Moon (Alex McKnight, #2)
Winter Of The Wolf Moon (Alex McKnight, #2)

9891
LET IT BURN, the next Alex McKnight novel, coming Summer 2013
More about Steve Hamilton...
The Lock Artist A Cold Day in Paradise (Alex McKnight, #1) Blood is the Sky (Alex McKnight, #5) Misery Bay (Alex McKnight, #8) North of Nowhere (Alex McKnight, #4)

Share This Book

Your website
“Leon, no offense, but you don't exactly look like a hockey player."

"I told 'em I was a goalie. That's where they put the guy who can't skate, right? Just like in baseball when they put the worst player at catcher.”
4 people liked it
“Once you freeze all the way through to your soul, you will never feel warm again.” 3 people liked it
More quotes…