Hamilton's novels have won numerous awards. His very 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A Cold Day in Paradise, won the Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Award for Best First Mystery by an Unpublished Writer. After it was published, the novel went on to win the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award and the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for Best First Novel, the only first novel to win both awards. That book introduced Alex McKnight, an ex-cop now making a living renting cabins in the small town of Paradise in Michigan's isolated Upper Peninsula, who becomes a reluctant private detective.

Hamilton's second Alex McKnight novel, Winter of the Wolf Moon (2000), was named one of the year's Notable Books by The New York Times Book Review and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, as did his next three novels, The Hunting Wind, North of Nowhere and Blood is the Sky (which won the 2004 Gumshoe Award). There are now seven books in the Alex McKnight series and they have been translated into 12 languages.

Hamilton's most recent book, Night Work, is a departure from the Alex McKnight series, featuring instead a probation officer in upstate New York, although Hamilton has indicated that he will return to McKnight at some point.Night Work has been nominated for the Crime Writers' Association top award The Duncan Lawrie Dagger.

In 2006, Hamilton won the Michigan Author Award for his body of work.

Hamilton lives in upstate New York with his wife Julia and their two children Nicholas G. and Antonia. He currently works full-time for IBM and does his writing in the evenings after his family has all gone to bed.

Alex McKnight series

• A Cold Day in Paradise (1998)
• Winter of the Wolf Moon (2000)
• The Hunting Wind
• North of Nowhere
• Blood is the Sky
• Ice Run
• A Stolen Season (2006)

Other

• Night Work (2007)
• The Lock Artist (2009)