The Lock Artist

We discovered Steve Hamilton's mysteries when we were walking around Lake Superior.  We were at the Berry Patch in Paradise MI and Shirley, the proprietor, said have you read - A Cold Day in Paradise.  We hadn't but we bought the book and found a series based in the region we were walking and love.  It was a natural fit for our relaxation.  The books (we bought two of the series) were good and they have gotten some Edgar Award recognition, but it was not until this book that I was really sold on Hamilton's tremendous gift for telling a story, laying it out and withholding just enough to tease you forward.

It plays back and forth between a very tragic event in the narrator's life and his path to criminal life.  The author introduces the primary character - "I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me.But you can call me Mike."

We finally learn why Mike does not talk, but it is his very silence that propels the story along.  We see him As a victim, an artist with a rare talent for opening locks, safes, etc, Mike is an observer, as much as a participant, who describes his partners in crime, people he seldom spends time with, in details that give us a real look at the seamy side of criminality.

Mike is also a victim because - he cannot speak up - and we know that if he could he probably would have been killed, and because he has an addiction for opening things.  

From a juvenile crime in which he is the only one caught - and the least criminal of the four, to sentence to serve, to a love of a young woman, we see him mature, but also get caught in a terrible avalanche of activities from which he cannot extricate himself.

The story has a great pace and is really an unusual crime perspective.  Definitely highly recommended.