Winter of the Wolf Moon by Steve Hamilton

No one writes "cold" like Steve Hamilton. The sharp wind blowing off the water. The cotton ball size snowflakes. The icy, desolate roads at night. It makes me want to huddle under a blanket just thinking about it. But cold and snow are part of life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And that is where Steve Hamilton's excellent Alex McKnight series is set.

I've been reading this series for a while, totally out of order as I find them at the library. Wolf Moon is one of the earliest entries. Alex is a former Detroit cop who headed up to the U.P. after being shot on duty, then never left. He rents out a series of cabins to vacationeers and snowmobilers and is a reluctant occasional private investigator with his buddy Leon. While filling in on his friend Vinnie's hockey team, he butts heads with a bad dude named Bruckman, which leads to Alex's helping out Bruckman's terrified girlfriend Dorothy--who promptly disappears. He spends a lot of time trying to figure out exactly who took Dorothy while fending off angry drug dealers and law enforcement officials.

If you haven't read this series, this is as good a place to start as any. Be sure to have a warm beverage nearby because you can't escape the cold.