It was becoming a routine for me, all the things I tried to keep out of my mind. I was getting pretty good at it.

     Until I finally lay down in my bed, and turned out the lights. Then they were all there, the doubts and the worries and the mortal fear, having their way with me until I finally fell asleep.
     And then on this night, the dream. Me back on the shore, standing in the fog. Thicker in the dream, so thick I can't even see my feet. The sound of something on the water, something I can't see. Just like when the boat was coming, although somehow I know this thing is bigger and moving twice as fast. I can't move. I don't know which way to run, even if I could. I'm just waiting for it, as it gets closer and closer. The thing, whatever it is. Coming right at me, out of the fog.

Synopsis: 

On a cold, miserable night in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a night that wouldn't feel so unusual if it wasn't the Fourth of July, an antique wooden boat runs full-speed into a line of old railroad pilings in the shallow waters of Waishkey Bay. When Alex McKnight helps rescue the passengers, he finds three men. The driver is out cold, the other two are dazed but conscious. When they're all finally back on dry land and sent away in an ambulance, Alex figures he'll never see them again.

He couldn't be more wrong.

It's not enough that Natalie Reynaud, the woman who has become the center of his life, is five hundred miles away, working a dangerous undercover operation in Toronto. Now Alex has even more problems when the men from the boat get tangled up with his best friend, Vinnie. It's all Alex can do to keep Vinnie from killing them or being killed by them.

With Vinnie in danger on one side of the border, and Natalie in just as much danger on the other, what comes next will be the absolute darkest hour of Alex's life, beyond anything he's ever faced before.

St. Martin's Minotaur hardcover (September 5, 2006) ISBN: 031235360X
Orion Hardcover (October 19, 2006) ISBN: 0752873954
Orion Trade Paperback (October 19, 2006) ISBN: 0752873962

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Reviews:

The chill of Michigan's Upper Peninsula doesn't cool the action in Edgar-winner Hamilton's expertly paced seventh Alex McKnight novel. Plot turnarounds and double-crosses ensure a startling conclusion.
-- Publishers Weekly

A real page-turner [with] enough twists in the story to keep you guessing throughout the book. Highly recommended.
-- Nancy Eaton for BestsellersWorld.com

Hamilton’s sleek, gritty style and nicely paced first person narrative is vivid and gripping. Alex is definitely an engaging yet very imperfect hero who readers will identify with immediately. His singular knack for attracting trouble -- and then figuring his way out of it -- is always engrossing. The northern Michigan climate is as much a trademark of the series as its flesh and blood characters, including in this installment where Alex points out that "summer forgot to arrive in Paradise". Hamilton has a real gift for personifying Mother Nature in all her wrath or glory and does another wonderful job of helping readers experience "the desolate, heartbreaking beauty of this goddamned place. This home of mine." If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Steve Hamilton, then do yourself a favour and track down the entire Alex McKnight series and savor each one until you turn the last page of A STOLEN SEASON -- you’ll be glad you did.
-- Martina Bexte for Bookloons.com

[T]he setting is always perfectly rendered, and the plot is suspenseful and involving. If you haven't read this book yet, you've got a treat in store for you. Meanwhile, I have to wait another year to see Alex again -- don't you feel sorry for me?
-- Maddy Van Hertbruggen for ILoveAMystery.com

There are pages in this book that are staggering in their intensity. Hamilton has a deep understanding of how seductive isolation can be, how it can work its insidious magic inside a receptive soul... Steve Hamilton's work reminds you of the reason why you began reading fiction in the first place.
-- Yvette Banek for MysteryInkOnline.com

The writing is lyrical... you'll find yourself holding your breath.
-- Gloria Feit for Crimespree Magazine

When he talks about nature, or about the unseasonable weather, or Alex’s feelings for Natalie, there is a clarity and a beauty that is as wonderful as the best autumn day in northern Michigan. Even though we know winter is coming, it’s difficult not to revel in the crispness, the exhilaration of the present.
So it is with Hamilton’s books.
-- P.J. Coldren for ReviewingTheEvidence.com

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Audio:

Audio editions of A STOLEN SEASON are narrated by Jim Bond
and available from Brilliance Audio.

Unabridged:
8 CDs, 9 hrs, ISBN: 978-1-4233-0713-6
1 MP3-CD, 9 hrs, ISBN: 978-1-4233-0715-0

Abridged:
4 CDs, 4 hrs, ISBN: 978-1-4233-1235-2).

To hear an audio excerpt, click here.
NOTE: This may take a few minutes to download.

Foreign Editions:

Steve Hamilton novels are printed world-wide.
Here we present covers from foreign editions of A Stolen Season.