Battered flesh and too much blood lost - I loved it!

Winter of the Wolf Moon by Steve Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tight writing and spare prose so characterize Hamilton’s work that my usual verbosity would be inappropriate. I really enjoyed this book and my admiration for both the writer and his characters, based on the first Alex McKnight novel, A Cold Day in Paradise, has grown. This is no James Bond superhero, but a man of flesh and blood – battered flesh and too much of his blood lost. The heroism is in cleaving to true values in the face of “bad actors” whose values are negative or nihilistic. Hamilton’s special virtue is in giving us secondary characters whose motives and values may not be what they seem when first seen. First-person narration can be awful, but in the hands of this prose master it gives us the opportunity to share our hero’s blind spots and to learn along with him the complexity of his fellows. This is a satisfying read. I look forward to more of the Alex McKnight series.

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