The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – An Honorable Assassin (The Nick Mason Novels) by Steve Hamilton

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

An Honorable Assassin (The Nick Mason Novels) by Steve Hamilton https://amzn.to/3ADoYjG From two-time Edgar Award-winning author Steve Hamilton, An Honorable Assassin is another terrifying thriller featuring the unstoppable Nick Mason. He was released from federal prison to a second life as an unwilling assassin, serving a major Chicago crime lord until the day he finally won his freedom. But that freedom was a lie. Now Mason finds himself on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there's only one name on his list: Hashim Baya--otherwise known as the Crocodile--international fugitive and #1 most wanted on Interpol's "Red Notice" list. Baya is the most dangerous and elusive criminal Mason has ever faced. And for the first time in his career ... Mason fails his mission. Baya gets away alive. There's only one thing he can do now: to save himself, his ex-wife, and his daughter, he must make this mission his life, hunting down the target on his own. But Mason isn't alone in his search, because for Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, apprehending Baya has become a personal vendetta. Sauvage is a man just as haunted as Mason. And just as determined. Never have the stakes been so high, the forces surrounding him so great. Sauvage wants Baya in prison. Mason needs him in a body bag. Assassin and cop are on a five-thousand-mile collision course, leading to a brutal final showdown--and the one man in the world who can finally show Nick Mason the way to freedom. About the author Steve Hamilton is the New York Times bestselling author of both the Alex McKnight series and the standalone novel The Lock Artist, currently in film development. He's one of only two authors in history (along with Ross Thomas) to win the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and then to follow that up later in his career with an Edgar for Best Novel. Beyond that, he's either won or been nominated for every other major crime fiction award in America and the UK, and his books are now translated into twenty languages. He attended the University of Michigan, where he won the prestigious Hopwood Award for writing.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hey, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

There you go, ladies and gentlemen. There are ladies and gentlemen. That makes it official. Welcome to the big show The Chris Voss Show is a family that loves you But doesn't judge you At least not as harshly as your mother-in-law She never liked you anyway

Refer the show to your family, friends, and relatives Go to goodreads.com Fortuna's Chris Voss LinkedIn.com Fortuna's Chris Voss Chris Voss won the TikTokity And all those crazy places on the internet As always we are the most amazing authors

We've been bringing you on the show for 16 years And over 2,000 episodes. We hit 16 this August, I think on the 19th. So there you go. We're old. We're in our teens, so we're going to be trouble, I guess. I don't know. We're one of those podcasts.

What can you say? Anyway, we have an amazing author on the show, a multi-book author. You may have heard and read many of his books. Steve Hamilton is joining us in the show with us. His newest book comes out August 27th, 2024 called An Honorable Assassin, the Nick Mason Novels Series. We're going to be talking about his books, his insights, how to become an author, and what does he love about writing. We're going to find that out or else. I don't know what that means. Steve Hamilton is the New York Times bestselling author of both the Alex McKnight series and a standalone novel, The Lock Artist, currently in film development. He's one of only two authors in history, along with Ross Thomas, to win the Edgar Award for the best first novel and then to follow that up later in his career with an Edgar for Best Novel. Beyond that, he's either won or been nominated for every other major crime fiction award in America and the UK,

and his books are now translated into 20 languages. Welcome to the show, Steve. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for all that, Chris. This is amazing. Thank you. There you go. I mean, it's your bio. You did it. Yeah, but when you hear somebody say it like that, it sounds like, damn, you know? Yeah, yeah. People ask me if they can pay me, you know, just to introduce them when they enter a room. Kind of like when the president has the music come up whenever he enters a room at the White House Affairs or whatever.

Yeah, and I just see, entering the room now is Steve Hamilton, author of, there you go. So, Steve, give us your dot coms. How would you like to find? Yeah, sure. The website is authorstevehamilton.com. And then you can go, you know, Twitter is author Steve and whatever, X, whatever it's called these days. And just Google me, you'll find me.

There you go. Twitter is soon to be called bankruptcy and bankruptcy court. That's right. There you go. The bk.com is what you'll find me. There you go. Twitter is soon to be called bankruptcy and bankruptcy court. That's right. There you go. The BK.com is what it'll be called. Do we get a check from Burger King for that? Anyway, Steve, tell us a 30,000 overview of your new book. What's this?

New book. This is the third book in the Nick Mason series, not to be confused like I just almost did with the Alex McKnight series. That was my first series. That was set in Michigan. Nick Mason is a professional criminal, born and raised in Chicago, grew up there, stole cars there, got in trouble there, went to prison, made a deal to get out, sold his soul to the devil to get out of prison early. He made this deal that he gets out, but anytime the phone rings, he has to pick up that phone and do whatever that person tells him to do. Sounds like he's married.

That's a good joke. My wife is going to love that one. Thank you. Smack that one out of the park, man. I'm not even in trouble yet, but now I am. But yeah,

so that one, so that was the first book, really, sort of him negotiating his way through this new life. That was the first book called The Second Life of Nick Mason. And in the second book was called Exit Strategy. And from that title, you can sort of guess what his mindset is. He's trying to get out of this devil's bargain that he made, this vice grip. Sounds like he's married.

We have the callback joke for the show. It is getting worse and worse for me here. And at the end of that book, without giving it away, you know, sometimes you get rid of one master, you find out there's another master above that. The last page of that book, the second book, Exit Strategy, he's getting on a plane to Jakarta, of all places, the most far-flung place that he could even imagine. And this is the third book,

An Honorable Assassin, and page one, he's getting off that plane. There you go. The next stage in the series. So how many books do you have total under your belt now? You have quite a few. I think it's 18-something.

There you go. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. I mean, that's no small feat. It's quite a lot of feet. You just keep doing it, and they keep publishing them, and all of a sudden you've got a bunch of them.

Yeah, yeah, you've got them all under your belt. So you've got the two series that run. Give us the names of the two series again. The Alex McKnight series, that's where I began with this ex-Detroit cop who's living in a real place called Paradise, Michigan, which is the smallest place you've ever seen in your life. You drive forever to get nowhere, basically. It's up on the shores of Lake Superior.

Sounds like one of your first advantages. I just, I thought it's like, why not try to set a hard-boiled novel in the most remote place I could? You know, this is a few years ago. Not a lot of guys were doing that. So that was the first series. And this is the Nick Mason series.

And you mentioned the lock artist. That was the standalone that i did sort of in in in the middle there there you go and that's a whole different book because that's about a that's about a young kid who never says a word in the entire book okay and it's third person there i was waiting for the marriage joke there but uh i mean you set up that one. Yeah. Oh, my God. Tell us a little. Now I got you doing my work for me. I know, I know.

The callbacks are always a fun thing. That's right. So tell us how you were raised, what influenced you, when did you start writing, and when did it go on? And you're like, hey, I'm pretty good at this. I should make this a thing. You know, I read books. I'm sure you do too i'm sure most people listening to this if they're have have any interest in this topic that's because they're

a reader and that's really where it all begins and i just when i was a kid i dreamed maybe someday i can do this i can i can write books people will read it was as simple as that. What was your early influences? I loved Agatha Christie and I loved those Alfred Hitchcock paperbacks. I would devour those and I would get in trouble every summer for sitting inside and reading them instead of being outside. Hitchcock was great. Yeah, of course. Yeah. There was a bunch of books I read of his and there was one that was real fat. I think it was a bunch of short stories. Yeah, i mean he he was you know obviously he was a film director but he would he had this talent for putting together these collections of short stories and i just they're just i i just ate those up yeah someone hurt him when he was young i'm not sure yeah something yeah

he was he was a strange dude i'm just kidding i'm sure he's wonderful no he he had some he was a strange dude. I'm just kidding. I'm sure he's wonderful. No, he had a real dark side to him. Yeah, you know, it takes something. But he was a masterful director. He was the best. So when did you finally, when did it turn on for you where you went, hey, I'm going to write something, submit it, and, you know, all that stuff? You know, I gave the commencement address up at Lake Superior State a few years ago. And I told them my story.

And I said, while you're wearing the silly gown, go find a place just to be alone with yourself for a minute and make a promise to yourself that you're going to hold on to that one thing that you really want to do someday. You know what I mean? And it's like, because odds are, the way the world works, you're not going to be able to do it right away. You know, you're graduating today.

You're going to go work at a job probably. And that's what I did. I graduated from Michigan, and I went to work at IBM. And I worked at IBM for 32 years. But I didn't forget that promise. I'm going to work at IBM. And I worked at IBM for 32 years. But I didn't forget that promise. I'm going to be a writer. And I just found a way to hold on to that idea. And I started writing short stories and finally wrote a novel.

And that was A Cold Day in Paradise. But even when I did that, I still worked at IBM and wrote 12 books. As sort of having this double life, as coming home at night, being a writer, going to work at IBM during the day, because that's what it took for me. Wow, there you go. But the only reason I'm here talking to you is because I made that promise when I was in my 20s,

and I just kept it. That's it. Keep the promise that you have yourself and now you're a successful author. Everyone loves your books. You get thousands of reviews and stuff. With this, the Nick Mason novel, the new book, is it a book where you can catch it on the third book

and catch up on the other two later? You can. You can certainly start here. I mean, there's only three of them so i would recommend just going out to the bookstore and buying all three of them today just buy all three get on amazon there folks and buy that's fine too but go no go to an independent bookstore and because those are we need those and and and buy all three books what keeps bringing him back to this Nick Mason character?

Why is he interesting for you? And why do you think he's interesting for the readers? You know, it's writing about a character, and I started again with a cop who was sort of hiding away from life and getting dragged back into trouble and stuff. And I think he was very easy to root for. And even writing about a safecracker in The Lock Artist, this is a young kid who really sort of gets dragged into this.

I think as a writer, you sort of want to challenge yourself. And Nick Mason was the first character I ever wrote about who was a straight-up criminal from the beginning. This is who he is. This is what he does. He still has humanity. He still cares about his family. He still has a code of things that he will and won't do. But that was my challenge is, can I make the reader root for a professional criminal who gets put into this position and now he gets the chance to come out. He's living in this luxury high rise in Chicago. This guy set him up in, he's got this great car,

but you know he's in this terrible situation because now he has to go do things that he never thought he would do. So that was really the challenge of that first book. Are you going to root for this guy yeah and people seem to love him so there you go everybody yeah i mean the the feedback on him is that they do root for him so that's that's all i wanted and i want to hear him say that i want to hear you say that as a reader and i want to hear you say that you just started the book and you just had to keep going and you stayed up too late to finish what do you think makes your books different that people seem to really enjoy and what do you think maybe stands apart for you as a writer that maybe you think why people like your books better

you know i mean that's that's a that's a that's a really good question i think you know writing in the hard-boiled crime genre it's easy to have a character who's like a cartoon who's just a tough guy a private eye with the coat and the thing and then the gun and i think what i tried to do from the beginning is just make this character a real person who gets his ass kicked and gets beat up and and hurts and doesn't get right back up and has doubts about himself it's like like, why am I doing this? And I just, even Nick, even when I moved on to, I wrote about this even harder character. I always wanted you to feel that he had a real heart and that he was a real person.

Yeah. There you go. He's kind of human. You know, it's like, I love the Bond movies, of course. Oh, yeah. James Bond is so great. But he sometimes is a little too impenetrable. Although I think they went overboard with the last one.

Yeah. Making him impenetrable. But yeah, though, that's, yeah. No, of course, I love that stuff, too. And there's a place for that. The most escapism kind of, just fantasy. This spy who goes around the world and it's kind of funny is that this this book is about as close as i'll ever get to that because he does go to jakarta and indonesia and he goes to singapore and the philippines and he even compares himself to james bond at one time

it's kind of a funny line because he says that you know james bond did it because he wanted to and i and i have no choice you know if if i don't do this stuff they're going to kill my family wow there you go that's why i never had kids in a family so i wouldn't be forced to before we go to singapore and kill a character and kill people yeah all right i just i just do it for fun. Don't do that, folks. We're just kidding. Yeah, don't try this at home.

Don't be. Yeah, that reminds me of a joke that I heard once. It was actually from a show or a movie, and the guy was like, yeah, I was in Vietnam. And they're like, no, you weren't in Vietnam. And they go, yeah, I was in Vietnam. I'm that old. And I killed four Vietnamese Charlies or whatever you call them back in the day.

And they're like, seriously? Wow, that's amazing. He's like, yeah, I was there last week. It's not my joke. That's a joke, all right. There you go. There you go. I was there last week.

So, yeah, I try to stay away from having to do the murdering. We're getting dark here. I think you're becoming an accomplice or an accessory. Yeah, this is the're getting dark here i'm i think i'm making i think you're becoming an accomplice or an accessory yeah you know this is the kind of stuff i write about so i kind of asked for it so that's all right there you go so do you do any did you do any visiting any traveling to any of the locales to do you know you know i i wrote about obviously you know i was born and born and raised in michigan but it's but it's funny because i i didn't write about michigan until i left it oh you know like james joyce didn't write about ireland until he was gone yeah from it and navakov didn't write about russia and yes i'm i'm comparing myself

to james joyce and navakov right now but there you go but on the other hand so there's something about being away from a place and looking back at it and seeing what's special and different about it, if that makes sense. But there's also this idea of writing about a place that you've never been. If you think about it, I mean, Shakespeare never went to Italy his whole life. And yet how many plays did he set there between Romeo and Juliet and Gentleman? I mean, he wrote about Italy as a place, as an idea yeah and sort of use it as a blank slate and this is all my fancy way of saying no i've i have not been there yet i've not been to jakarta or singapore or the philippines and i'm going and i'm going to go there i was actually

planning on going there life kind of got you know COVID kind of shut the world down. Oh, yeah, COVID. I'm really interested to go there and see how much of what it feels like to be there I got right. Because that's really all I wanted to do. And I think so far I've heard that I sort of have. That I talked to somebody from the Philippines last night who had assumed I had been there. Oh, wow. There you go. So maybe I'm getting it right. Maybe I got the feel right.

I have a lot of authors on the show. They're like, yeah, I just pick odd locations so I can go vacation there for research. Yeah, that was my wife's idea. You set a book in the upper peninsula of Michigan instead of the Caribbean or Hawaii. Yeah, the Caribbean france or something yeah exactly some place where there's great shopping you know work on that will you next

for you what do you work on it maybe you can tease out that you got coming down the pike i mean now that i mean i'm i'm on tour right now and i'm back home and i'm back home in michigan right now so i'm doing a lot of the great independent stores in the state of Michigan right now. And, of course, the question everybody asks me here is if Alex McKnight is going to come back. And I'm happy to tell him that, yes, I'll definitely go back to him. There you go. Do you think that's coming up next in the series? There might be something else coming.

There might be something else. It has to be top secret for now. There you go. There's something coming around the corner, yeah. Yeah, there you go. So we'll look forward to all that and all the good stuff. Final thoughts as we go out. Tell people where they can pick up the book and, of course, any dot coms.

I mean, like I said, the author, SteveHamilton.com. That's where you can find everything. And you can find out where I'm going to be in the next couple of weeks. You can order the books from everywhere. Or just, like I said, go to your nice independent bookstore because I really try to support those stores. Support the independent bookstores. That's for darn sure. Get those guys staying in business

So thank you very much for coming to the show We really appreciate it Oh it's my pleasure Thank you so much Chris Thank you and thanks to our audience for tuning in Order of the book wherever fine books are sold It's called An Honorable Assassin The Nick Mason Novels Book 3 of 3

By Steve Hamilton Thanks to everyone for tuning in Be good to each other, stay safe And we'll see you guys next time