Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton

"Two sons and two fathers now," he said. "plus one girlfriend. McKnight, I think we've something terrible going on here."

~Page 92

Title: Misery Bay
Author: Steve Hamilton
ISBN: 9780312380434
Publisher: Minotaur books/2011
Pages: 304

On a cold miserable night, a college student hangs himself from a tree in the middle of a snowy, deserted field called Misery Bay near Lake Superior. He doesn't leave a note, but then suicide victims seldom do. The boy's father, a federal marshal and who happens to be an old friend of Alex McKnight's rival Police Chief Roy Maven, asks Alex to look into his son's suicide. But what appears to be a simple suicide, gets them embroiled in something sinister. Alex and Chief Maven find themselves working together, trying to find and stop a cold-blooded killer, who is hell bent on targeting law enforcement officers via their children. Meanwhile Alex tries to put the demons of his past behind him.

Hamilton’s drawing of characters or plot-line is superb and very believable, Alex McKnight’s  relationship with police chief Roy Maven changes to grudging mutual respect as the novel progresses. The  twists and turns in the story line keeps the reader on the edge. WE observe that the victims are the real focus, and although McKnight and the FBI search frantically for that elusive link that might lead them to the killer, we do see a hopelessness and bleakness in the characters. 

Alex McKnight is one of the best fictional investigators that has been created in a novel. I am going to read  as many books I can, written by Hamilton.