North of Nowhere by Steve Hamilton

I kept reading reviews of Steve Hamilton's books and finally decided to check them out. I grabbed one off the shelf at the library, which turned out to be from the middle of the series--North of Nowhere. The main character of the series is Alex McKnight, a former cop from Detroit who has settled literally north of nowhere in the far reaches of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The book starts with Alex's friend Jackie inviting him to a poker game at the house of the rich and arrogant Winton Vargas. During the game, robbers come in, pull guns on the poker players and steal something from Vargas's safe. Vargas is convinced that one of the poker players--probably Alex (who had been a last-minute fill-in) is behind the heist--and Alex is just as determined to prove his friends' innocence. There are a lot of unexpected twists and turns. And you get a good feeling for the beauty of northern Michigan, which the author clearly loves. I enjoyed North of Nowhere and will seek out other works in the series.