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The Second Life of Nick Mason A Nick Mason Novel Steve Hamilton Books

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The Second Life of Nick Mason A Nick Mason Novel Steve Hamilton Books

i don't understand the wildly positive reviews on Amazon's website for Steve Hamilton's "The Second Life of Nick Mason." True, there is a lot of fast-paced action in the last part of the story and Hamilton writes well, but other aspects of this book are pretty mediocre and a few are downright disturbing.
I'm a huge fan of Hamilton's Alex McKnight series. I've read them all and hope he writes many more. The characters are funny, interesting and likeable. Alex makes mistakes, errors in judgment, gets beaten up in almost every imaginable way but he's basically a good guy who tries hard, has a pretty decent sense of right and wrong and is like a bulldog in the pursuit of his objectives. I've always been interested in what Alex does and what he's going to do next, which is to say I care about the character. He's credible. Even when the Alex does something I think is ill advised or foolish, I understand where he's coming from.
Not so with Nick Mason. Mason is not a "terrific new hero," as Kirkus Reviews suggests. Nor did I see him as some poor victim of circumstance or even a particularly likeable guy. He starts out as a small-time criminal who spends time and effort perfecting his 'craft' and who is later imprisoned for getting caught. Through a strange twist of fate, a pretty unbelievable one, he graduates to much more serious crimes and ends up a killer. I see Mason as a maker of bad decisions who lacks the usual traits of character that go into the making of a hero. The only honorable act he performs in the first part of the book is to take the fall for the other men who committed the crime along with him in which a federal agent is killed. While that kind of sacrifice is definitely no small thing, Nick Mason is still a criminal.
It's difficult to understand why Mason is singled out to become Darius Cole's hitman on the outside. The reader is given little evidence he has distinguished himself from the rest of the prison population in any real way, just that he's quiet and a loner. Cole tells him he has "bushido" (which means "way of the warrior," and refers to a complex set of Japanese values stressing honor and loyalty to country and family above all else), but nothing I read substantiated that claim. It's also unbelievable that Cole sets Mason up in a high-end townhouse in a fashionable suburb of Chicago. Why? And why give him classic cars that are easily distinguishable from anything else on the road, making him more noticeable, not exactly a plus for someone in Nick's line of work.
The two main female characters are without dimension and are, frankly, naive and/or stupid. On the basis of one night spent together and a conversation about a dog, Lauren and Nick decide they're in love and want to build a life together. The explanation for Lauren's naivete and stunning lack of concern about Nick's past is that nice girls are attracted to the charms of bad boys. Diana is just plain confusing and strange. This isn't the first time Hamilton has written odd women characters. I'm reminded of a love interest for Alex in a previous McKnight book. I found that character to be a self-centered person for whom I had surprisingly little sympathy despite her troubled history, who proved undeserving of Alex's loyaltyand friendship. I was glad she was written out of the story quickly.
Here's something I found disturbing. At one point, working up his courage to kill the first guy on Cole's hitlist, Mason forces himself to keep the image of his daughter's face before him so he can carry out his assignment. There's something really twisted and creepy about using one's child for that purpose. Further, Mason made this arrangement with Darius Cole so he could have a future with his daughter. Really? To what end and at what cost? So Nick agrees to kill people at Cole's bidding so that he can get out of jail and be a loving dad.
Chalk up a couple more less-than-credible points. After Mason decides to double-cross Cole, he is strangely naive about his future -- "I'll go back and serve my time," he tells the cop, Sandoval. It's hard to see how that could happen or how he could even think it was a possibility. Note, too, toward the end of the book Mason is suddenly transformed into James Bond or Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Where did those skills come from?
Nothing in this book makes any sense to me. None of the characters have any awareness that their thinking is faulty or unrealistic. None of them seems to have a clue about how they got into their current situations or what it would take to extricate themselves. Victim thinking and muddled logic abound. That the special agents turn out to be dirty cops is supposed to somehow exonerate Mason or lessen his guilt, or even more far-fetched -- make him a hero? It's like a bad reality TV show.
After finishing the book I still don't like the guy. The only characters I felt sympathetic toward were Nick's ex-wife and her new husband, Brad. One can only imagine what Nick's presence in their lives will mean. That Mason's daughter, in all her adolescent wisdom, rushes to her birth father's defense near the end of the book is a clue to that.
But I honestly don't care. In order to commit to a book series, I think the reader needs to be able to relate to or connect with the protagonist some of the time. Because Steve Hamilton is a favorite author for me, I'm genuinely sorry to say there is nothing in this first book that makes me want to go on to book two.
In our current culture where the lines between good and bad too often seem hopelessly blurred, the Nick Mason character is perhaps clever, certainly flawed, but he's not redemptive or admirable. He's a criminal, not a hero. I couldn't get past that.


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The Second Life of Nick Mason A Nick Mason Novel Steve Hamilton Books Reviews

I'm of a mixed-mind about this book. I am a reader of Hamilton, haven't missed a book that I'm aware of and still believe "The Lock Artist" is one of the most inventive books I've read in recent years, but I was "thrilled," "enthralled" or "turned on" but this book. It is well done--Hamilton is good writer and knows how to write a good book. This writing is good, the characters are well-drawn, the plotting is expert, but I just wasn't captured by the story, the environment or the ideas. I realize that I am in a minority on this, and it will stop me from reading the next Hamilton book, but this is not my favorite of his works. 'Nuff said? If you like good crime thrillers, if you like Steve Hamilton, buy it and read it.
What starts as an interesting premise falls flat fairly soon. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't mind the anti-hero approach. What bothered me more was how little I cared about him. I could never really find anything intriguing or all that interesting about him. He - and to some extent all the characters - felt too trite, like a textbook definition of what their particular role should be. The story itself felt the same. As if Hamilton took jigsaw pieces from different cliched storylines and pasted them together. I like most of Hamilton's work, so perhaps I'm unduly harsh about this one, but I've come to expect better overall work from him.
I love Steve Hamilton's books - usually. As always, the writing is stellar and the story flows. That's why I finally settled on a three-star rating. My problem is that I just had a hard time liking Nick Mason. At times, Nick is sympathetic, and just when I thought he was going to make (to me) the right decision, he doesn't. To thoroughly enjoy a book I need to relate to the characters and I need for those characters to have a moral code. Nick may has one, but not one I like.
I've been a big fan of Steve Hamilton's Alex McKnight series ever since my wife bought me a hardcover copy of 'A Cold Day in Paradise' and told me 'Here's a new writer, you might like him.' It's been almost 20 years and the book is in tatters now, but I pull it out every now and then and re-read it - it's that good. As are most of the rest of that series. I haven't particularly liked his forays beyond Michigan's Upper Peninsula, however. I really enjoyed 'The Lock Artist', but could barely get through 'Night Work'. Sadly the same goes for Second Life. If you're a fan of hard-boiled, extremely fast- paced Chicagoland gangbangers & dirty cops story, this is for you. If you prefer something more nuanced and with a touch of humor, you might not find this a satisfying read. With any luck Alex and his Yooper buddies will show up again in a few years.
I really wanted to like this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the Lock Atist, and have read all of the McKnight novels. The Lock Artist had a vaguely similar character but you liked him even if he was a thief. I just couldn't like Nick Mason. Flawed characters are great, They arethe bedrock of the best crime fiction. But Nick Mason isn't flawed, he is totally self-absorbed to the point of psychosis. Even that would be acceptable, Richard Starks Parker series was based on a character with no remorse and no real redeemable features. The problem with this book is it tries to make you like Nick Mason or empathize with him. That wasn't possible for me. Coupled with that, much of the story seemed totally implausible or unprofessional for an experienced thief. Still, I give the book four stars. And you're probably wondering why. The book is incredibly well written, as all of Hamilton's books are, there is plenty of action and very well-drawn characters. I just didn't like any of those characters. So I would say this because a very good read, but Nick Mason is not a character I want to read more about.
i don't understand the wildly positive reviews on 's website for Steve Hamilton's "The Second Life of Nick Mason." True, there is a lot of fast-paced action in the last part of the story and Hamilton writes well, but other aspects of this book are pretty mediocre and a few are downright disturbing.
I'm a huge fan of Hamilton's Alex McKnight series. I've read them all and hope he writes many more. The characters are funny, interesting and likeable. Alex makes mistakes, errors in judgment, gets beaten up in almost every imaginable way but he's basically a good guy who tries hard, has a pretty decent sense of right and wrong and is like a bulldog in the pursuit of his objectives. I've always been interested in what Alex does and what he's going to do next, which is to say I care about the character. He's credible. Even when the Alex does something I think is ill advised or foolish, I understand where he's coming from.
Not so with Nick Mason. Mason is not a "terrific new hero," as Kirkus Reviews suggests. Nor did I see him as some poor victim of circumstance or even a particularly likeable guy. He starts out as a small-time criminal who spends time and effort perfecting his 'craft' and who is later imprisoned for getting caught. Through a strange twist of fate, a pretty unbelievable one, he graduates to much more serious crimes and ends up a killer. I see Mason as a maker of bad decisions who lacks the usual traits of character that go into the making of a hero. The only honorable act he performs in the first part of the book is to take the fall for the other men who committed the crime along with him in which a federal agent is killed. While that kind of sacrifice is definitely no small thing, Nick Mason is still a criminal.
It's difficult to understand why Mason is singled out to become Darius Cole's hitman on the outside. The reader is given little evidence he has distinguished himself from the rest of the prison population in any real way, just that he's quiet and a loner. Cole tells him he has "bushido" (which means "way of the warrior," and refers to a complex set of Japanese values stressing honor and loyalty to country and family above all else), but nothing I read substantiated that claim. It's also unbelievable that Cole sets Mason up in a high-end townhouse in a fashionable suburb of Chicago. Why? And why give him classic cars that are easily distinguishable from anything else on the road, making him more noticeable, not exactly a plus for someone in Nick's line of work.
The two main female characters are without dimension and are, frankly, naive and/or stupid. On the basis of one night spent together and a conversation about a dog, Lauren and Nick decide they're in love and want to build a life together. The explanation for Lauren's naivete and stunning lack of concern about Nick's past is that nice girls are attracted to the charms of bad boys. Diana is just plain confusing and strange. This isn't the first time Hamilton has written odd women characters. I'm reminded of a love interest for Alex in a previous McKnight book. I found that character to be a self-centered person for whom I had surprisingly little sympathy despite her troubled history, who proved undeserving of Alex's loyaltyand friendship. I was glad she was written out of the story quickly.
Here's something I found disturbing. At one point, working up his courage to kill the first guy on Cole's hitlist, Mason forces himself to keep the image of his daughter's face before him so he can carry out his assignment. There's something really twisted and creepy about using one's child for that purpose. Further, Mason made this arrangement with Darius Cole so he could have a future with his daughter. Really? To what end and at what cost? So Nick agrees to kill people at Cole's bidding so that he can get out of jail and be a loving dad.
Chalk up a couple more less-than-credible points. After Mason decides to double-cross Cole, he is strangely naive about his future -- "I'll go back and serve my time," he tells the cop, Sandoval. It's hard to see how that could happen or how he could even think it was a possibility. Note, too, toward the end of the book Mason is suddenly transformed into James Bond or Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. Where did those skills come from?
Nothing in this book makes any sense to me. None of the characters have any awareness that their thinking is faulty or unrealistic. None of them seems to have a clue about how they got into their current situations or what it would take to extricate themselves. Victim thinking and muddled logic abound. That the special agents turn out to be dirty cops is supposed to somehow exonerate Mason or lessen his guilt, or even more far-fetched -- make him a hero? It's like a bad reality TV show.
After finishing the book I still don't like the guy. The only characters I felt sympathetic toward were Nick's ex-wife and her new husband, Brad. One can only imagine what Nick's presence in their lives will mean. That Mason's daughter, in all her adolescent wisdom, rushes to her birth father's defense near the end of the book is a clue to that.
But I honestly don't care. In order to commit to a book series, I think the reader needs to be able to relate to or connect with the protagonist some of the time. Because Steve Hamilton is a favorite author for me, I'm genuinely sorry to say there is nothing in this first book that makes me want to go on to book two.
In our current culture where the lines between good and bad too often seem hopelessly blurred, the Nick Mason character is perhaps clever, certainly flawed, but he's not redemptive or admirable. He's a criminal, not a hero. I couldn't get past that.