Annotation: Mike is a high school boy who experienced a trauma that has left him orphaned and mute (for psychological reasons not physical) which is the main mystery of the novel. Mike’s muteness makes him an outcast until he discovers he has a particular knack for understanding locks. After helping Brian “the house” Houser, who forgets his locker combination, Mike’s life take a turn where he’s recognized and highly admired for his talent but unfortunately this attention comes from those who want access to more than just their gym clothes.
Justification for Rejection: The real strength of this book is in the descriptions of lock-picking. As Mike learns the ins and outs and as he gradually becomes a safe-cracker he describes undoing the locks with great detail almost like a x-ray perspective of the inner workings of the lock in question. For someone with a similar interest this book seems to serve as a how-to guide for picking key locks and deciphering combination locks. This level of detail reminded me of Clive Cussler who also presents technical details while the adventure unfolds. It also has a bit of an air of Elmore Leonard in that it attempts to take you into the world of crime with authenticity.
Mike is a fairly rounded character mostly through his relationship with Amilia who he’s able to also share his talents as a graphic artist with. Mike communicates with Amilia by drawing paneled cartoons and so it’s through this communication that we learn about Mike’s sordid past. Amilia is also the vehicle through which Mike is able to show some caring and compassion. He’d be a very cold character without this relationship. They also become intimate and so we’re able to explore the feelings and concerns of sexuality through their relationship and maybe something sort of like love but not really, Mike’s just too selfish. The other characters are realistic albeit a bit stock especially the farther you get from Mike and Amilia – the more minor the character, the greater the cliché. Amilia’s impossible-to-like, goon of a boyfriend Zeke is a good example.
One aspect about Mike that may be very attractive for teens is that he is very independent. His Uncle Leto adopts him and pretty much let’s Mike do what he wants. In fact after Leto gets Mike a motorcycle, that’s about the last we see of Leto. Plus once Mike gets the attention of a criminal syndicate led by “The Ghost” he’s plunged into a world of adults who almost worship his lock-picking skill and give him all the money and freedom he could want. It’s pretty fantastic but I could see a teen connecting to this because we all hope to be recognized for our talents and respected. Yet this is a bit troublesome too because we’d hope that our students will be recognized and respected for something other than helping thugs steal from other people.
But I do have to give the book credit for not leaving the reader with the impression that everything is okey-dokey at the end of the story. At the beginning of the book Mike tells us he’s relaying this to us while he’s in prison so we know it’s not going to turn out okay. Moreover he doesn’t get the girl or ride of happily ever after. He’s left feeling the weight of all he’s done and it involves the theft of millions of dollars and the death of several of his cohorts. This serves as a cautionary tale and leaves us without the security and comfort of redemption, which is a good move by Hamilton.
The locations are many in this book and you have to wonder if Mike’s little motorcycle could really get him from L.A. to N.Y. to Detroit back and forth about a half a dozen times but I’ll graciously suspend my disbelief. But I won’t forgive the fact that these locations are pretty much just names and as cities they have no distinction from each other to speak of. Also there’s no reason that the events in the story couldn’t have all taken place in any one of these cities.
The real mystery of the novel is how Mike lost his parents and became mute. Although this is what Rosebud was to Citizen Cane - a MacGuffin to prod the plot along - Hamilton makes the mistake of revealing it 3/4 into the book which makes the last 1/4 tedious. Of course there’s the mystery of how he got into jail but – duh – he’s a safe cracker, one might guess that he gets arrested for breaking into a safe and they’d be right. Wow. Yet I will say that the reveal of Mike’s muteness is original and engaging and the event that caused it is truly thrilling and terrifying. It’s just too bad that Hamilton didn’t take the full page from Orson Wells and save the reveal for the very end.
And that brings me to the overall enjoyment of the book and although this book may meet much of the criteria of a YA mystery it’s not one I’d recommend. This book is just simply in need of a confident editor who can get Hamilton to condense this story. Similar to how he drops superfluous locations to add variety Hamilton uses the trick of a fractured plotline that jumps back and forth from Mike learning to become a “boxman” in Detroit to joining his second crew of thieves in L.A. where he’s finally caught. Although this does help with the pacing it also stands out as gimmicky and probably wouldn’t be necessary if Hamilton would have simply condensed. And the area he can condense on is the many descriptions of opening locks. Again this is the greatest strength of the book but after the tenth description that sounds all too similar to the previous nine I found myself skimming a lot. There are many other scenes too that are repetitive such as every time Mike meets someone it’s mandatory that have a discussion starting with, “Gee you really don’t talk do you?” This served its purpose after the first two times but probably happens a dozen times in the book. Characters also suffer similar repetition as Mike goes through not one but two crews of thugs on his rise to becoming the greatest boxman ever. Not only could either one of these crews be swapped for the other nearly every member of either crew could play musical chairs. Hamilton just spreads them all too thin, you don’t get enough time to know any of them let alone care about them. When they start getting shot and/or arrested it completely lacks any impact. So ultimately I could only really recommend this book to someone interested in becoming a locksmith, but then why bother with the superfluous characters, locations and repetitive dialogue? I’d simply recommend a book on locksmithing.
Genre of Catalog: Mystery, thriller, police procedural.
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