Winter of the Wolf Moon picks up just a few months after the first story left off. Winter in Paradise, a small town on frozen Lake Superior, consists of a lot of drunken snowmobilers racing around on their noisy machines. Of course there are also the casinos and ice fishing for more diversion. Alex McKnight keeps busy by plowing out his rented cabins (where 4 inches of snow “qualifies as scattered flurries”) and keeping company at the Glasgow Inn. As the days of snow and cold wear on Alex, his friend Vinnie LeBlanc talks him into playing goalie for his hockey team, the Red Sky Raiders.

As Alex deftly notes, “Eight faces, all Bay Mills Ojibwa. And one old white man.” From this aggressive first game, Alex is introduced to opposing player Lonnie Bruckman, local hockey has-been and drug dealer. While Bruckman looks like trouble for Alex, it is his girlfriend Dorothy Parrish who causes Alex some serious problems.

Dorothy is a pretty woman, mid-thirties, who long ago left her Ojibwa roots and moved away. Having heard that Alex is a private detective, (a short-lived occupation that he now wants no part of) Dorothy asks him to help her get away from Lonnie Bruckman. Knowing that he will hunt her down, for numerous reasons that only become apparent to Alex later, Dorothy seeks shelter in one of Alex’s cabins. Only when he wakes up the following morning, Dorothy is gone, and what happened to her?

The one thing that can be said about Alex McKnight is that he is tenacious. Stupid and tenacious like a pit bull sometimes, but this man doesn’t let up. Feeling responsible for Dorothy’s disappearance, Alex begins looking into the scary Lonnie Bruckman and his drugged-up hockey buddies. So desperate is Alex for help that he even gets his goofy ex-partner, detective wannabe Leon Prudell, to help him in his search. From here on out, Alex gets messed up in more violent episodes involving drug deals, snowmobiles and hired thugs than he could have ever imagined.

As with Hamilton’s first mystery, Winter of the Wolf Moon is carried largely by the first-person narrative. Alternating between comical, angry and determined, Alex McKnight is a formidable presence. Hamilton also succeeds with his supporting cast of characters, from the hard-nosed chief of police to the Scots bartender. And of course, the frozen and fierce winter setting plays a pivotal role as the mystery unfolds.

If that mystery isn’t quite as intriguing as Hamilton’s first effort, let’s cut the guy some slack. Winter of the Wolf Moon is still a topnotch thriller, one that makes you want to curl up in a warm blanket while you read the icy tale. And hey, the pressure is off Steve Hamilton for that second mystery -- now his fans can await a sure thing with his third.

--Martha Moore