His first book, "A Cold Day in Paradise", won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for best first mystery by an unpublished writer, the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best first novel, and the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for best first novel, the only first novel to win the latter two awards. That book introduced Alex McKnight, an ex-cop who rents out cabins in the small town of Paradise in Michigan's isolated Upper Peninsula for a living and becomes a reluctant private detective.