The Second Life of Nick Mason - Steve Hamilton

Hi my book-loving friends. Sorry for another lull in the blog posts, so much summer wonderfulness is going on...and today's is just now the first day of summer. ;-) Hopefully soon I'll have some exciting news to share, but for now, I have a review to share. My review of Steve Hamilton's The Second Life of Nick Mason first appeared as a starred review in Shelf Awareness for Readers. I am posting it today with their permission. Hope you enjoy.

First line: "Nick Mason's freedom lasted less than a minute."

In a stark departure from his Alex McKnight novels, Steve Hamilton kicks off an impressive new series featuring Nick Mason, a former car thief from Chicago who tries to go straight for the sake of his family but winds up in prison for a murder he didn't commit. Now Mason is sitting in Terre Haute Penitentiary for 25 years to life. He learns the ropes of general population, doesn't make unnecessary waves, but also doesn't let anyone get the better of him. Then everything changes when Darius Cole summons Mason to the Secure Housing Unit.

Cole is the powerful head of a Chicago criminal enterprise in federal prison on a RICO conviction. Despite being locked up, his reach extends far beyond the walls of USP Terre Haute, and he's offering Mason a deal. Cole will arrange for Mason's conviction to be overturned, his slate wiped clean. In exchange, Mason works for Cole for the remaining 20 years of his original sentence.

The desire to return to his wife and daughter convinces Mason to trade his soul to the devil. But when the reality of his deal finally becomes clear, Mason discovers he may have put himself and his family in the worst danger possible.

The Second Life of Nick Mason is a new chapter in Hamilton's career, and it's intensely exciting. The concept is fresh, the action is heart pounding and Nick Mason is a solid protagonist. His halo is tarnished and his intentions are gold. Readers will connect with him and clamor for his return.

The Second Life of Nick Mason is available in hardcover (ISBN: 9780399574320) from Putnam and as an unabridged audiobook (ISBN: 9780451483546), narrated by the wonderful Ray Porter, from Penguin Audio. You can find a copy at your favorite independent bookstore or any of these online retailers:

  

   

Property of the State - Bill Cameron

First line: "'Joseph. Don't sit down.'"

Veteran crime fiction writer Bill Cameron makes a stunning entry into the world of YA fiction with Property of the State, the first book in his Legend of Joey series. Joey Getchie is a foster child biding his time in the system until he can emancipate himself. As with many fosters, Joey's been bounced from family to family. Currently he's tolerating the Bobbitt family in order to attend Katz, an elite magnet school in Portland, Oregon, but he is coming to the end of his rope with his foster father who uses Joey's school computer to surf porn and his foster mother who is addicted to prescription pain killers. He's keeping his eye on the prize--early graduation--in order to make it through.

Joey's good friend Trisha is also a foster kid, but she's been with her family more long-term. However, Trisha's foster father has made it clear to Joey that he feels Joey is a bad influence and doesn't want him around. So Joey and Trisha see each other at school and their favorite coffee house, Uncommon Cup.

Joey's plan for early graduation and emancipation is threatened, though, when Joey and his foster father get into a physical altercation. Joey walks out and Wayne Bobbitt changes the locks. In a desperate attempt to hide the current situation from his social worker, Joey begins hiding out at the Huntzel Manor, the home of his classmate Philip Huntzel. Joey has a job cleaning for Mrs. Huntzel four days a week after school. He knows that one room is never accessed by anyone in the family--Kristina's room--so he hunkers down there and slips in and out of the house to attend school.

Joey's plan gets another jolt when his classmate Duncan is hit by a car and fighting for his life in the hospital. The police are looking for the driver of the car and their investigation takes them to Katz, and to Joey.

Property of the State is a YA novel that will keep readers of all ages engaged and enthralled.  The characters are fully realized, dimensional, complex and fun. The story line is suspenseful, including strong plot twists and a mystery sure to keep readers guessing.

Cameron's humor is a bonus in this strong series starter. Joey, being an exceptionally smart teen, excels at the art of sarcasm. And his descriptions of riding in his social worker's car or meeting with his therapist are priceless. But Joey is also a typical young boy, baffled by and bumbling over his growing attraction for Trisha.

As an older reader, I found Joey endearing. His desperate need for solitude and quiet in his world of constant chaos, his desire to do the right thing--even when the universe seems to be conspiring against him--make him an empathetic character.

I'm ready to hand off Property of the State to my niece so she can read it and we can talk about it together. And then we'll both be eagerly anticipating the next Legend of Joey book.

Property of the State is available tomorrow in trade paperback (ISBN: 9781929345229) from The Poisoned Pencil. You can find it at your favorite independent bookstore or any of the following online retailers:

 

  

King Maybe - Timothy Hallinan

My review of Tim Hallinan's King Maybe first appeared as a starred review in Shelf Awareness for Readers. I am posting it today with their permission. Hope you enjoy.

First line: "Bad luck, as my mentor and surrogate father, Herbie Mott, used to say, arrives on the wind."

In the fifth book of Timothy Hallinan's caper series, Junior Bender is having a run of bad luck. "If--as some ironic people used to say as they flashed air quotes--life was a box of chocolates, someone had sat on the box." First, the Los Angeles burglar finds himself trapped during a burglary by two goons determined to ensure he doesn't make it out of the house alive. Some fancy footwork and quick thinking help him evade the goons but not the hot water.

Hollywood has-been producer Jake Whelan harbors a beef with Junior. In order to set things straight, he demands Junior break into the office of King Maybe, the studio exec who makes or breaks people in Tinseltown. But when the seemingly easy job is turned on its head, King Maybe might just break Junior.

To top it all off, Junior's daughter has boy trouble and he's on the outs with his girlfriend, Ronnie. Part burglar, part cupid, Junior will have to up his game if he has any hope of making it through the week alive.

Timothy Hallinan is an incredibly gifted writer with a knack for blending vivid settings, exciting plots, dynamic characters and clever humor to create captivatingly complex stories. King Maybe exemplifies all of this. From his sensory-stimulating description of a low-rent hotel room to the insightful development of Junior and Ronnie's relationship, Hallinan's writing is so distinctive and refreshingly original, it would probably be fitting to crown him the caper king.

King Maybe is available in hardcover (ISBN: 9781616954321) from SoHo Crime and as an unabridged audiobook (ISBN: 9781504616669), narrated by the wonderful Peter Berkrot from Blackstone Audio.

  

   

The Highwayman - Craig Johnson

First line: "There is a canyon in the heart of Wyoming carved by a river called Wind and a narrow, opposing, two-lane highway that follows its every curve like a lover."

The next full-length Walt Longmire novel doesn't come out until September, so for those like me who are impatient for their Absaroka County fix, The Highwayman is here to appease. Craig Johnson's second novella is a ghost story of sorts set in the Wind River Canyon.

Wyoming Highway Patrolman Rosey Wayman has recently been assigned to the night shift in Wind River Canyon. The canyon, coupled with two tunnels, makes radio reception tricky in her beat, but Rosey starts hearing 10-78 calls at 12:34 a.m. 10-78 calls--officer needs assistance--at the exact time Bobby Womack, a former patrolman, met his death in that same canyon nearly fifty years earlier. In fact, the calls seem to be coming from Bobby.

In addition to the calls, Rosey finds two rare silver dollars believed to be from a cache stolen just before Bobby Womack died. There were rumors he was in on the theft. The rumors were never confirmed by they tainted Womack's legacy nonetheless.

Rosey's supervisor pulls patrol with her a couple of times to try to hear the radio calls, but there's only silence when he's present. So Walt and Henry head over to Wind River Canyon to spend a few nights with the young officer. If they can't discover anything, Walt has to talk Rosey into seeing someone for psychiatric help.

Walt's adventures will never be as easy as a trip to the shrink, and The Highwayman proves that once again. This little gem of a read is all that makes the Walt Longmire series wonderful packed neatly into 190 pages. The breath-taking Wyoming setting, painted in Craig Johnson's stunning wide strokes of beauty and danger co-existing on the same palette, provides a fitting backdrop for the ghostly plot. A handful of new and delightfully entertaining characters step into the roles since Walt is on the road for these exploits. All would be welcome additions to the series if they happen to show up again in the future.

And of course, a book could not carry the Walt Longmire name without crackling dialogue full of wickedly smart humor and touching insights into human nature. Walt, himself, is a gem in this genre, and it's a special treat to be able to visit with him two times this year. While I understand the appeal of the television series and am beyond tickled that it has introduced many people to this sterling series, no screen version can even begin to compare to the world that comes alive on Craig Johnson's pages. It's as rare as the Hot Lips Morgan silver dollars and will make you feel just as rich to possess it in your imagination.

The Highwayman is available tomorrow in hardcover from Viking Penguin (ISBN: 9780735220898) and as an unabridged audiobook, narrated by the unparalleled George Guidall, from Recorded Books (9781501928529). You can find a copy at your favorite independent bookstore or at any of these online retailers:

  

  

Mission Hill - Pamela Wechsler

First line: "I'm in bed, silently reciting their names."

Abby Endicott is the chief of the Boston District Attorney's Homicide Unit. Coming from a wealthy family, Abby isn't the typical ADA. She wears designer clothes, drives a Prius and lives in a posh apartment. Her family regularly hounds her to leave the DA's office and find a job that's a little more upscale, a little less dangerous. But Abby loves her job; it's the center of her universe and she has no intention of going anywhere.

Abby's cases haunt her nightly. Instead of counting sheep she counts the people she's prosecuted for murder. The gruesome and terrible ways people have snuffed out the lives of others. Despite the four years of cases--26 murderers--she's completely unprepared for the case that summons her at three in the morning.  A fellow ADA is the victim; his body is found at tow lot, conjuring up questions about what he was doing there in the middle of the night.

But the victim's murder is the police's case right now. This heinous assault on the ADA's office leaves Abby with a high-profile case the victim was preparing to take to trial, a case that Abby has personal ties to. Despite her history with the victim, the judge allows Abby to take over the prosecution. As she puts her case together, the police investigate her colleague's murder and the two start to cross paths. Abby's determined to put her accused murderer behind bars, but her doggedness may put her in the morgue instead.

Pamela Wechsler's debut novel conjures up hints of Linda Fairstein's Alex Cooper with her financially secure ADA protagonist. She also has hints of Alafair Burke's Samantha Kincaid with her gutsy, no-nonsense female homicide prosecutor. But Wechsler offers her own contributions to the genre as well. Abby's personal baggage is integrated into this first novel, adding dimension and flavor to her character. Her boyfriend, Ty,  and a detective colleague, Kevin, provide avenues for development of Abby as well as being strong, interesting supporting characters. All of these aspects leave opportunities for Wechsler to continue the growth in Abby's character in subsequent additions to the series.

While the plot's case isn't anchored to Boston, Wechsler does develop the city's setting throughout the novel, as well as provide an insider's view of courtroom procedure. The pace of the novel is swift and the suspense is maintained throughout. Mission Hill adds a fascinating new female protagonist to the genre and gives legal thriller fans a new series to enjoy.

Mission Hill is available starting tomorrow in hardcover from Minotaur (ISBN: 9781466887138). It is also available as a unabridged audio download from Recorded Books, narrated by Morgan Hallett. You can find a copy at your favorite independent bookstore or any of the following online retailers:

  

  

Surveillance - Reece Hirsch

First line: "The day that Bruen & Associates opened for business was one of the best days of Chris Bruen's life–until the first client walked through the door."

In Reece Hirsch's third book featuring protagonist, Chris Bruen, the privacy lawyer is launching his own business with his significant other, computer forensics specialist Zoey Doucet. What should be a monumental day in both characters' lives turns into the stuff nightmares are made of.

The clients most likely to hire Bruen aren't the type to walk in off the street, but just after opening the doors at Howard Street in San Francisco on the very first day of business, just such a client arrives:

Chris was instantly skeptical that this would amount to anything. One of the occupational hazards of being a privacy lawyer was that you occasionally had to field calls from random paranoids who found your name linked to the world 'privacy' in their Google search results. Sometimes the issues were legitimate, but more often the matter was better addressed by an adjustment in medication or adding another layer of aluminum foil to a hat lining.

Ian Ayres is a former hacker who now owns a penetration-testing and ethical-hacking service. His extreme paranoia–he wants to talk to Bruen outside his office–immediately puts Bruen on alert. Ayres explains that while doing a penetration testing job for a communications company he discovered a government agency downloading terabytes worth of call metadata. When he reported his findings to the client, they acted as though they never hired him and accused him of hacking their system. The contract Ayres had even vanished. Ayres is certain it isn't the NSA; he says he knows how they work. Instead, he theorizes that he's uncovered a secret agency no one is supposed to know about. And now people are after him.

Bruen is unsure whether he believes Ayres or not, but he knows for certain this isn't the type of case his firm handles. So he offers to give Ayres some recommendations. But when they return to the office, Bruen finds his entire staff–save Zoey–have been murdered. Now this secret agency isn't just after Ayres, Bruen is in their cross-hairs as well.

As the two men waste no time getting out of the office and on the run from their pursuers, Bruen calls Zoey, who had been out of the office for coffee, and advises her to go into hiding with an old hacker acquaintance of hers.  The three set off in their respective directions, none of them knowing this is only the beginning of a terrifying ordeal, a modern-day David and Goliath. But do they have a sling shot mighty enough to bring down this unidentifiable Goliath of a government organization?

In the current climate of Edward Snowden, personal privacy and national security debates–a climate that also created a significant debate around Apple's refusal to help unlock an accused terrorist's phone–Surveillance is timely and more than a little disturbing. Hirsch will have readers thinking about their Google searches, phone calls, Skype chats, even library loans–or conversations in their cars, "It occurred to him that an operative with a laser microphone could eavesdrop on his conversation by using the sound vibrations on the car window glass." They're also likely to be far more cognizant of security cameras than they've been before. The reach of the government agencies and their current technologies is complex and significant. And the belief that you aren't doing anything wrong won't be a comfort during this thriller:

'So maybe it's kind of a variation on the Heisenberg principle. Maybe the NSA isn't trying to spy on its citizens so much as it's trying to keep them in line. Maybe the point of observation is to change behavior.'

Hirsch keeps the pace moving quick and fluidly. Short chapters and high intensity suspense propel the plot.  The crafty imagery compliments the subject matter well:

He felt like one of those smartphones that's a couple of generations behind the latest model. It still works, but the battery doesn't hold a charge the way it use to, the software's a bit glitchy–it'll never function again the way it did when it was new.

And Hirsch also manages to sneak some wit into the dark depths of this technological thriller. The Amish way of life may look a little more appealing at the end of Surveillance. Stock up on the tinfoil, folks, the eyes and ears are everywhere.

Surveillance is available in paperback (ISBN: 978-1503933231) from Thomas & Mercer. It's also available as an unabridged audiobook (ISBN: 978-1511365994) narrated by David de Vries from Brilliance Audio.

   

Twisted River - Siobhán Macdonald

First line: "She would never have fit as neatly into the trunk of his own car."

In a day and age when house swapping has become commonplace, Siobhán Macdonald has found the ideal story concept to scare the bejesus out of her readers and make them think twice about that romantic Cameron Diaz Holiday.

Kate O'Brien, living in Limerick, Ireland, is running ragged. She teaches at the local college, but has recently turned down a promotion because it would require more time at work. As it is, she rushes home to be sure she's there for her son, Fergus. Fergus may be autistic, but Macdonald doesn't come straight out and say so. He is definitely bullied at school which weighs heavily on Kate and her daughter, Izzy. Izzy sacrifices a lot because of her brother's special needs, but she doesn't complain and she doesn't begrudge him anything. Fergus and Izzy's father, Mannix O'Brien, is occupied with secretive issues of his own that he's shared with his brother, but not his wife.

Hazel Harvey lives in an expensive Manhattan apartment with her dentist husband, Oscar, and their two children, Jess and Elliot. They appear to have an enviable life, but behind closed doors there are problems and secrets, and everything isn't quite what it appears to the outside world.

Kate and Hazel both decide that a family vacation is in order to help deal with the mounting stresses in their homes. So they take to the computer and research a house-swap for their accommodations. Kate wants to visit New York City because Fergus adores the movie King Kong. She can't believe her luck when she happens on Hazel's home in the listings. Hazel wants to visit Limerick because she emigrated from Ireland and hasn't been back to visit her homeland since.

Both families make their arrangements and set off for their vacations that will correlate with Halloween. What transpires befits the creepiest of haunting Halloween tales.

In her debut, Macdonald does an exquisite job of leading her readers by the noses and then throwing grand twists into the plot to catch them completely off guard. She plays off stereotypes to successfully muddy the plot waters and enhance the mystery. Be careful of drawing conclusions before reaching the end of Twisted River because Macdonald is likely to prove your conclusions wrong.

The suspense is well-developed to maintain intrigue and an eerie atmosphere consistently throughout the book.

The choice of a limited third person narrator allows Macdonald to share enough of the characters so readers can begin to develop ideas about them, but not enough to see their entire pictures. This works to help develop the suspense but it also highlights a theme of the novel: people are rarely who they first appear to be. Both family matriarchs end up guilty of assuming things about the other family without having the whole picture. And in Macdonald's world of Twisted River, that can be very, very dangerous.

Twisted River is available in trade paperback (ISBN: 9780143108436) from Penguin. It is also available as an unabridged audiobook (ISBN:  9781504686792), narrated by Alana Kerr Collins, Sile Bermingham, Gerard Doyle and Tom Taylorson, from Blackstone Audio.