“The noir world evoked by Knowles’ brutally clipped prose is so dark that the smallest victories seem like miracles.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Combining the intense grit of Richard Stark’s Parker series with the amorality of Jim Thompson’s work, Knowles once again delivers.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review of Rocks Beat Paper

“The story is downright gripping, even when the darkness begins to feel overwhelming. Readers biding their time between novels by Dennis Lehane and Don Winslow should check out Knowles.” —Booklist on Tin Men

Private detective Sam Jones’s six-year search for an eight year old boy ends with gunshots in a basement and two bodies that would eventually lead the police straight to him. Jones had never promised Ruth Verne that he would find her son alive, but he knew deep down that she believed he would — worse, he had believed it too. Jones wasn’t ready to look Ruth in the eye and tell her he had failed. He wasn’t ready to admit that he lost everything and had nothing to show for it.

But an unsigned note scrawled on a bathroom door gives Jones a second chance — a shot at redemption. Thirteen words left by a young girl in trouble give him someone to chase and a reason to keep moving before the cops move on him. Jones follows the trail from an idyllic small town to the darkest corners of the city, running from the boy he failed toward the girl he could still save.

Mike Knowles lives in Hamilton with his wife, children, and dog. He has written seven previous novels: Darwin’s Nightmare, Grinder, In Plain Sight, Never Play Another Man’s Game, The Buffalo Job, Rocks Beat Paper, and Tin Men.

“[A] brilliantly woven crime novel … The realistic, multidimensional characters evolve, as do their relationships with one another. With any luck, Jones will be back for an encore.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Canadian novelist Knowles is a strong writer, with a real sense of what makes bad people tick and what makes good people risk their lives to catch the bad ones. His prose style is top-notch, too — lean, hard-edged, and brutally honest when it needs to be. As stories of redemption go, this one is particularly interesting … A must-read crime novel from a writer who deserves to be on the radar screens of a lot more genre readers.” — Booklist, starred review

“The noir world evoked by Knowles’ brutally clipped prose is so dark that the smallest victories seem like miracles.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“As we discovered in his most recent crime novel, Tin Men, Mike Knowles does noir really, really well. Running From the Dead is even better. It’s a smart, serious, carefully crafted gem that belongs in the rarified company of writers such as Dennis Lehane and John Sandford.” — Globe and Mail

“The best private detective novel I’ve read in some time … This one deserves an award.” — Bay Observer