Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Summary and Reviews of Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton

Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton

Misery Bay

An Alex McKnight Novel

by Steve Hamilton

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Jun 2011, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

On a frozen January night, a young man loops one end of a long rope over the branch of a tree. The other end he ties around his neck. A snowmobiler will find him 36 hours later, his lifeless eyes staring out at the endless cold water of Lake Superior. It happens in a lonely corner of the Upper Peninsula, in a place they call Misery Bay, a good 250 miles west of Paradise.

Alex McKnight does not know this young man, and he won't even hear about the suicide until two months later, when the door to the Glasgow Inn opens and the last person Alex would ever expect comes walking inside to ask for his help. What seems like a simple quest to find a few answers will turn into a nightmare of sudden violence and bloody revenge, and a race against time to catch a ruthless and methodical killer.

Alex McKnight knows all about evil, of course, having faced down a madman who killed his partner and left a bullet next to his heart. Mobsters, drug dealers, hitmen - he's seen them all and they've taken away almost everything he's ever loved. But none of that could ever prepare him for the darkness he's about to enter...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Assured prose, a thrilling plot, and a surprising, satisfying conclusion make this a winner." - Publishers Weekly

"Hamilton's latest is an extremely well crafted puzzle, a chilling suspense story, and a compelling examination of evil." - Booklist

"A tightly woven plot and a sense of urgency create a suspenseful mystery that keeps the reader fully engaged from start to finish. A perfect fit for regional mystery fans and those who like their mysteries fast-paced and gritty. Strongly recommended." - Library Journal

This information about Misery Bay was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Diane S

Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton
A book that is set in a place you live or at least visited always seems more interesting and the upper peninsula in Michigan is one of my favorite places. Yet even if I had never been there Hamilton does such a great job that one can feel the extreme cold and at times the desolation and loneliness of living there. AS usual he is consistent and keeps his storylines interesting as well as his characters. Great mystery with many twists and turns, I have never been disappointed reading one of his novels.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Steve Hamilton Author Biography

Steve Hamilton is the New York Times–bestselling author of twelve novels, most recently The Second Life of Nick Mason and Die a Stranger.  His debut, A Cold Day in Paradise,won both an Edgar and a Shamus Award for Best First Novel. His standalone novel The Lock Artist was a New York Times Notable Crime Book and won an Alex Award and the Edgar Award for Best Novel. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won the prestigious Hopwood Award for writing, and now lives in Cottekill, New York, with his wife and their two children.

Link to Steve Hamilton's Website

Other books by Steve Hamilton at BookBrowse

8 more...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more thrillers...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.