Steve Hamilton Books

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Steve Hamilton is a renowned American novelist born in 1961. He grew up around Detroit but currently resides in upstate New York. Steve Hamilton has had an illustrious career as a mysterious writer since 1998.

Steve Hamilton is widely celebrated for his thrilling Alex McKnight Series. The series has a collection of 10 books and one short story. A Cold Day in Paradise, which debuted the award winning series remains one of his best works. Night Work, The Lock Artist and The Second Life of Nick Mason are some of the single works by Steve Hamilton. It is important to mention that The Lock Artist and Night Work won several awards and performed well in both local and international charts.

Born and raised in the state of Michigan, writing was always a keen interest of Steve Hamilton, as he was bitten by the writing bug as a young child. In fact, he was that keen a writer that at the age of 12t, he submitted a story to the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Although he was rebuffed at the time, that didn’t stop him from continuing his interest in writing. In fact, to complete the circle, Hamilton did actually go on to write a piece for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, so needless to say, he had the last laugh.

However, it was a long road to get there for Hamilton. He continued his writing throughout college, studying at the University of Michigan, where he won the Hopwood Award for a short novel that he did will in attendance there. He was so taken by winning the Hopwood Award that he decided to continue his writing, albeit in the background while he was studying for his computer science major. After graduation (and gaining a strong foundation in English as well as computer science), instead of pursuing his writing full-time, Steve Hamilton went into a job with IBM, where he would work nine-to-five and would hopefully continue his writing. However, for over a decade, Howard wouldn’t do any writing. It wasn’t until he joined a writing group that got him started back into his passion of writing.

While writing in his group, Hamilton took up writing mysteries, and writing short stories for magazines. This then led to Hamilton writing A Cold Day in Paradise, which was his first published novel, and also the first in Hamilton’s most famous series, that of Alex McKnight. A Cold Day in Paradise was a huge success, and Hamilton was awarded the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, as well as the Shamus Award, which is awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America.

Hamilton, buoyed by this success, continued writing the Alex McKnight series of books, and followed up A Cold Day in Paradise with Winter of the Wolf Moon, which was published in 2000, and was a critical success. Winter of Wolf Moon was followed by The Hunting Wind, and then Blood is the Sky.

More critical success was to follow for Hamilton, when he won the 2004 Gumshoe Award for the fifth book in the Alex McKnight series, Blood is the Sky. This was followed in 2005 by Ice Run, and then A Stolen Season in 2006. Hamilton then took some time off from writing the Alex McKnight series of books to focus on other works, chiefly standalone novels.

The first novel Steve Hamilton had published outside of the Alex McKnight series was Night Work, which was released in 2007, which was nominated for the 2008 Gold Dagger, although he lost out to Frances Fyfield’s novel Blood From Stone.

However, the second standalone novel that Steve Hamilton wrote, The Lock Artist, would become his most critically successful novel to date. He won his second Edgar Award, this time for Best Novel. He also won the Barry Award, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and the Alex award for The Lock Artist, as well as being short-listed for other awards, including another Gold Dagger, although this time he lost out to Tom Franklin’s novel Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

Steve Hamilton returned to the Alex McKnight series in 2011, writing Beneath the Book Tower, which was a short story, and then followed that up with the full-length novel Misery Bay in the same year. This was followed by Die a Stranger in 2012, and then Let It Burn in 2013.

From his days at IBM, where he worked while writing his first 12 books, Steve Hamilton has come a long way, and is now a full-time writer, with great critical and commercial success, and is also a husband and a father.

STEVE HAMILTON AWARDS

Steve Hamilton has won several awards throughout his outstanding career. He stands out as one of the authors to have won both the best first novel and the best novel in the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards. This exceptional feat, achieved by his debut novel, has only been attained by two writers, Ross Thomas and Steve Hamilton himself. Steve Hamilton has either been nominated or won several awards. The long list includes the Shamus Award, The Barry’s Award, the Anthony, the Gumshoe and the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Silver Dagger as well as the Silver Dagger of the same association.

BEST STEVE HAMILTON BOOKS

A Cold Day in Paradise: This is Steve Hamilton’s first novel, also the number one in his only series, Alex McKnight. In 1999, A Cold Day in Paradise won the Edgar’s and the Shamus Awards for the Best First Novel category. The book therefore not only introduced the plot and characters of Alex McKnight series but it also launched Steve Hamilton’s writing career in a colourful style. The book is developed around an ex-cop now private investigator, Alex McKnight. After surviving a shooting which leaves him with a bullet lodged a centimetre from his heart and his partner dead, all that Alex McKnight wants is a quiet life. He therefore moves to Paradise, a small town in Michigan. To supplement his income from the private detective job he does reluctantly for a local lawyer, he rents out the cabins inherited from his grandfather to hunters.

When Edwin, McKnight’s friend, calls him from a local motel asking for his help, he rushes there only to find a dead man on the floor with blood all over the room. Alex McKnight’s solace in Michigan ends at this point as a string of murders ensue. His life gets more weird, faster than he can understand. He realizes that his partner’s killer, who has been in prison for years, is not only stalking him but could also be the one responsible for the serial murders! The frenzied chase begins and he gets bacjbto his old job, this time, for himself.

Blood in the Sky: This book, released in 2004, is the fifth in the Alex McKnight series. It won the Gumshoe Award and was a finalist in both the Anthony and the Shamus awards for best mystery and best novel categories respectively. It starts with Alex rebuilding his cabin that has been razed down by fire. This happens in late fall and for Alex McKnight to complete the job before winter, he really has to be fast. His friend, Vinnie, offers to help him do things the right way. When one day Vinnie fails to show up, Alex, being the typical good friend, goes looking for him. It turns out that Vinnie had given Tom(his brother) his driver’s license for a moose hunting expedition in Canada but he has taken too long to be back. Vinnie and Alex go after Tom in to the remotest and most dangerous parts of Canada. The mysterious search puts their lives in suspenseful danger that keeps the readers glued to the book for the outcome of the unfolding search.

The Lock Artist: Released in 2010, this is one of the three Steve Hamilton books that are not in the Alex McKnight series. The book has won several awards including Barry, Edgar, Alex and the Ian Fleming Dagger Award. The book was also voted the Best Translated Mystery of the Year in Japan. In this standalone crime mystery, Steve Hamilton introduces a unique new character, Michael. Now 18 years, Steve has lived a traumatized life since he was 8. Over the past 10 years, he has not uttered a word but he discovers that he has a rare talent. Michael can open any lock or crack the most complicated safes. This talent makes Michael a friend of all kinds of wrong people.

Steve Hamilton FAQs

Q: What nationality is the author Steve Hamilton?

A: The author Steve Hamilton is American. He was raised in Michigan, and now lives in upstate New York with his family.

Q: What is the name of Steve Hamilton’s first novel?

A: The first novel Steve Hamilton had published is A Cold Day in Paradise, which was published in 1998. Hamilton won the Private Eye Writers of America Award for Best First Novel, as well as Edgar for Best First Novel for A Cold Day in Paradise. It is the first book in the Alex McKnight series of mystery novels.

When Does The Next Steve Hamilton book come out?

Steve Hamilton doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is An Honorable Assassin and was released on August, 27th 2024. It is the newest book in the Nick Mason Series.

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