Alex McKnight is having a beer at his favorite Northern Michigan haunt when his nemesis, chief Roy Maven of the Sault Ste. Marie police, pops in. McKnight figures they’re finally going to have that fistfight. Instead, Maven has come seeking a favor. A college boy has been found hanging from a tree at Misery Bay, a remote spot on the shore of ice-choked Lake Superior. The boy’s father, a federal marshal, is Maven’s friend; they rode together years ago when they were both state troopers. The father needs to know why his son killed himself, Maven says, and McKnight, a former Detroit cop and part-time private detective, is the right man for the job.
Reluctantly, McKnight accepts, but when the boy’s father is found with his throat slashed, the case takes an immediate turn.
