The Second Life of Nick Mason

July 25, 2016
In two-time Edgar-winner Hamilton’s new series, protagonist Nick Mason’s first life ended when he began serving a 25-year sentence behind bars for participating in a robbery in which a federal agent was killed. His second life kicks in when he accepts Chicago crime kingpin Darius Cole’s alternate plan: spending the next 20 years on the outside, living large, but ready to obey his savior’s every whim. The apparently obvious choice has unforeseen consequences. Chief among them: Nick is not a murderer, regardless of his conviction, but Darius expects him to assassinate on demand. Along with an assortment of distinctive voices—Nick’s has a chip-on-his-shoulder edge, Darius’s is filled with calm gravitas—reader Porter delivers the protracted setup crisply and smoothly. Once Nick gets his initial assignment and is nearly killed himself, Hamilton’s prose gets leaner, the plot (involving crooked narcotics cops) gets trickier, and Porter increases the pace and the intensity. A Putnam hardcover.

Starred review from February 29, 2016
Nick Mason, the hero of this high-octane series launch from Edgar-winner Hamilton (Let It Burn), makes a pact with fellow inmate Darius Cole, a Chicago crime boss, that springs him from prison, where he was doing 25 to life, headlong into a new incarnation as Cole’s no. 1 gun. But deals with the devil don’t usually play out well, as Nick soon learns. The luxurious Lincoln Park West mansion in which Cole sets him up in Chicago, with a mysterious female housemate already in residence, amounts to little more than a gilded cage, until Nick gets the next in a deadly string of assignments—which increasingly threaten the few people he cares about, including his nine-year-old daughter. Readers may not totally buy such plot-greasing elements as the stoic Nick’s quick transformation from midlevel crook to crack assassin, or his tentative romance with pet shop owner Lauren, but for the most part Hamilton guns it like Nick’s 1968 Mustang for a fast and furious ride. A movie adaptation is already in the works from Lionsgate with Nina Jacobson and Shane Salerno producing. Author tour. Agent: Shane Salerno, The Story Factor.

What a fascinating, complex audiobook! Nick Mason is a criminal with a conscience, but that doesn't stop him from doing bad things. Nonetheless, we still like him in the way we rooted for Tony Soprano. Narrator Ray Porter may have a lot to do with that. His portrayal of a criminal who is fiercely loyal to his friends and family is outstanding. He conveys the constant pressure and tension felt by Mason with his speech patterns and a tone of raw emotion always held in check. Porter also breathes life into the sinister Darius Cole, who runs a Chicago crime family from his prison cell, where he's serving a double life sentence. Cole manages to free Mason from prison, only to turn him into his personal enforcer. The ending is logical and satisfying. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine