The Second Life of Nick Mason

Publishers Weekly ¡ï 02/29/2016 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¡ªwhich 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. (May)