Let It Burn

Publishers Weekly Edgar-winner Hamilton puts a fresh twist on the archetypical tough-guy cop with a heart of gold in his 10th Alex McKnight novel (after 2012’s Die a Stranger). The upcoming release of Darryl King, a murderer McKnight helped put behind bars, draws the old cop out of near-isolation in the remote town of Paradise, Mich., and brings him back to Detroit—or, rather, what’s left of it. McKnight has a gut instinct that King may not have been guilty of the crime after all. As he reaches out to old contacts, including the detective who obtained King’s confession, McKnight becomes convinced that the case isn’t as airtight as it appeared at the time. Hamilton’s prose feels most human at the moments when McKnight surveys the emerging ruins of Detroit, like an archeologist come too soon to the excavation site. Yet the intrigue, like McKnight’s gut instinct, sometimes seems based on little more than a feeling. Agent: Jane Chelius, Jane Chelius Literary Agency. (July)