The Second Life of Nick Mason. Finished 12-4-19, 4.25/5, thriller, pub. 2016

Unabridged audio read by Ray Porter.

Nick Mason has already spent five years inside a maximum security prison when an offer comes that will grant his release twenty years early.  He accepts — but the deal comes with a terrible price.

Now, back on the streets, Nick Mason has a new house, a new car, money to burn, and a beautiful roommate.  He’s returned to society, but he’s still a prisoner.  Whenever his cell phone rings, day or night, Nick must answer it and follow whatever order he is given.  It’s the deal he made with Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind serving a double-life term who runs an empire from his prison cell.

Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes, hunted by the relentless detective who put him behind bars, and desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wife, Nick will ultimately have to risk everything—his family, his sanity, and even his life—to finally break free.  from Goodreads

When we first meet Nick he’s serving time in Terre Haute, then we get flashbacks to his younger years stealing cars in Chicago, until a deal made with the devil gets him out of prison and back on the streets.  Only this time he’s having to do someone else’s bidding and his daughter and ex-wife are in danger.

I loved the way Nick’s story unfolded.  Low level crimes became bigger ones until finally prison made him into someone he didn’t think he was capable of becoming.  I could feel his reasons and justifications and understood that he was just trying to survive another day, whatever the cost.  The story is fast-paced and had a satifying, but not all-wrapped-up-in-a-bow ending.

Nick has a second book and a third one in the works and I’m excited to see what happens next.