The Second Life of Nick Mason

Steve Hamilton

Another Hamilton book, this one debuting a new series and a new brooding protagonist – Nick Mason: noble petty criminal forced to work for evil organized crime boss while valiantly attempting to hold onto his humanity and save from ruin a whole bunch of innocent people.

This is better than A Cold Day In Paradise. Mason is more complex than McKnight, and more interesting (if perhaps less believable). The plotting is better, less predictable, more engaging, and the supporting characters are (besides the criminal mastermind dude) less clichéd. The structure is more complex (whenever a book starts off with your protagonist getting out of prison, there will be flashbacks) but not overly showy. Setting the story in Chicago also helps, at least for me. I’ll take big city over small town every time.

This still isn’t top notch Richard Price level crime writing, but if crime thrillers are your bag, you could do much worse.

Recommended for the enthusiast.