Hamilton, Steve. THE LOCK ARTIST. (2010). ***. In this novel, Hamilton abandons his series character Alex McKnight and introduces Michael. Michael is in prison, serving a ten-to-twenty-five-year sentence for safe cracking – at least I think that’s what the charge is. Michael suffered a truly traumatic experience as an eight-year-old boy that left him mute. He communicates through signing and writing things down on a pad. At about nine years of age, he became fascinated with locks, locks of all kinds, from simple keyed padlocks to combination locks to sophisticated locks on upscale safes. He learned how to undo these locks using a variety of techniques. Unfortunately, other people found out about his talent, and used Michael for their less than legitimate purposes. Michael becomes despondent, but soon sees the possibility of freedom when he meets Amelia, the daughter of one of the men that Michael and a gang tried to rob. But Amelia’s father discovers Michael’s talent, too, and hopes to use it to satisfy his debt to a group of serious-minded hoodlems. When the hoodlems take over, Michael has to go along because Amelia’s safety is threatened, too. You can’t say much more about the story without giving away the plot hooks, but it flows along well. The actual telling skips about chronologically and geographically so that movement forward is not in a straight line. This is OK up to a point, but the style becomes more and more, “...and then...and then.” The novel does show that Hamilton has other stories in his head besides the McKnight ones.