There’s the old cliché that writers write what they know. Even though New York Times bestselling author and University of Michigan alumnus Steve Hamilton’s latest novel, “An Honorable Assassin”(Blackstone Publishing $26.99) occurs in Indonesia, he’s never been there.
“I didn’t get the chance to go there yet,” said Hamilton, of upstate New York. “There’s this principle about writing a place. There are some people who write about places only when they’ve moved away from them and can see them at a distance like James Joyce did writing about Ireland. He didn’t write about it until he was gone. Not to compare myself to Joyce certainly, but I didn’t write about Michigan until I was gone and could look back at Michigan and see what was special about it.”
He continued: “There’s also this principle of people writing about a place they’ve never been before. How many plays did (William) Shakespeare write that were set in Italy? Shakespeare never set foot in Italy his whole life, but he used Italy as a setting… and set (his plays) in this faraway place… If you do it right, you can make it work. I hope I did and… I hope I did get the feel of the place right.”
A Detroit native, Hamilton will embark on a 14-city tour across Michigan, beginning Monday, Aug. 26, in Highland and ending Friday, Sept. 6, in Petoskey. Visit Hamilton’s website for detailed information about his book tour. One notable stop is on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at Two Dandelions Bookshop in Brighton, where fellow author Stephen Mack Jones, best known for the August Snow series of novels occurring in Detroit, will interview Hamilton.
“Steve Hamilton is that rare magnificent storyteller who flawlessly combines cinematic flare with literary gravitas. I’m eternally envious,” said Jones, of Farmington Hills.
“An Honorable Assassin” marks the third installment in the Nick Mason series. Nick debuted in 2015’s “The Second Life of Nick Mason.” After serving five years in a 25-to-life sentence, Nick is released and given a second chance, but there are strings attached. Although he’s out of prison, he’s not free. Whenever his cell rings, Nick must answer it, regardless of the time, and follow whatever order he’s given by whoever’s on the other end.
Hunted by the authorities, Nick wants to go straight and reconcile with his daughter and ex-wife. He eventually comes up with a plan to escape this shadow organization’s clutches as chronicled in 2017’s “Exit Strategy.”
“At the end, he thinks he’s finally won his freedom and freed himself from this master. But, as it turns out, if you free yourself from one master, there’s another master above him, which is what he learned. At the end, he’s on a plane to Jakarta, Indonesia, which is as far away as you can imagine since he’s a Chicago kid,” explained Hamilton.
He created Nick after penning 10 books featuring Alex McKnight, a private investigator whose base of operations is in the Upper Peninsula.
“(Alex is) the character who’s been with me from the beginning, but you never want it to get too easy. If you let it get too easy, you’re not doing it right. It was really time to challenge myself with something else – that’s where Nick Mason comes in,” said Hamilton. “Even though he’s a criminal, he has a very strict set of rules of what he’ll do and what he won’t do. He violates those rules and goes to prison. You see this deal he’s offered to get out. He gets out so he can see his family, which is really the first moment, I hope, you can relate to him, even though you may not like the fact that he’s a criminal.”
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He continued: “It’s something I may not have tried when I was just starting out as a writer because you always want the reader to be rooting for your main character. That was a bit of a challenge. I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to this character and the circumstances he’s in: Having to do whatever he’s told whenever that phone rings. There’s a little bit of wish fulfillment in this series. He gets out of prison and lives in this townhouse with a beautiful car and beautiful roommate (Diana) and money every month – that’s the wish fulfillment part. The other part is a real nightmare – what the cost is, the price has to pay for his new life.”
The first page of “An Honorable Assassin” has Nick stepping off the plane in Indonesia. He is assigned to assassinate the international fugitive Hashim Baya, alias the Crocodile, the No.1 most wanted on Interpol’s “Red Notice” list. However, when Nick goes after Baya, he fails to kill him.
“Baya’s an investor and financier of terrorism as a commodity. He’s bad business for the organization that owns Nick; that’s why he’s sent to take this guy out,” said Hamilton. “His name, Baya, is similar to the Indonesian word for ‘crocodile.’ They have 20-foot-long crocodiles in Indonesia. If you’re nicknamed the Crocodile over there, you’re in for some serious trouble if you’re tangling with somebody who’s being compared to one of those guys. He’s the toughest target Nick has tried to hunt down – and he fails… For the first time, he fails in his mission and has to find a way to keep going and to convince the people who hold his family’s welfare in their hands as a threat that he can do this; that’s why he’s driven to keep going.”
The only thing Nick can do now to save his ex-wife and daughter, he has to hunt down Baya on his own.
“It’s a very disorienting thing for him to do what he needs to do but with strangers. He’s not used to working with strangers. He had a rule. Rule No. 1: ‘Never work with strangers. Strangers put you in prison or the ground.’ Now here he is working with strangers in another part of the world. Every rule he’s ever had he’s had to break just to get by in this place,” said Hamilton.
Along the way, Nick meets Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, who has his own personal vendetta against Baya, and a fellow assassin named Luna.
“That was a really fascinating thing to find out what Interpol guys do. The movies don’t give you an accurate view of Interpol agents, who are these super cops who go all over the world. It’s not that at all. If you’re sent somewhere as an Interpol member, you are not a police officer anymore – you’re an advisor. You don’t have a gun, a badge – an official badge at any rate – or arrest powers; you have nothing. You just advise the ‘real’ police when you get there. It was an interesting learning experience to see what these guys can and can’t do.”
For Hamilton, writing Luna was the best part of writing “An Honorable Assassin.” He described Luna as every bit Nick’s equal.
“She’s the first woman criminal who’s as good as Nick – or better,” he said. “There’s this moment they have together, where she brings him up short on this idea: ‘You think you can do this stuff and still be an honorable assassin, but you can’t because this is what you do now. This is what you are. I’m the same way. The longer you hold on to that idea – that you’re an honorable assassin – you’ll be putting yourself and me in danger and get us both killed.’ That’s an important moment for Nick when she says that, but he keeps holding on to this essential piece of humanity. He has to. Otherwise, what is he?”
Nick also encounters a young girl named Bellani, who’s the same age as his daughter. While Nick can’t protect his daughter, he can protect Bellini.
“He takes it upon himself to look out for her and help her because he has to,” said Hamilton. “He’s here to kill someone and be a murderer, but this is one thing he can do on his own to reclaim his humanity. He can find this girl, who reminds him of his own daughter, and he can help her.”
Hamilton is looking forward to signing “An Honorable Assassin” in his home state. This is his first time touring in Michigan in six years.
“Michigan still has the best independent bookstores in the country. Period. Nowhere else is even close,” he said. “No one can compare to Michigan for independent bookstores. They just can’t. That’s only reason to come back, but it certainly is a great one. Michigan is where I was born and raised and where I still feel at home. Of course, that’s where it all began. That’s where Alex McKnight began. The first seven books were all set in Michigan… I’ll be over the state for a couple weeks and hope people will come out and see me because what better thing is there to do than hang out at a bookstore?”
