The Lock Artist

I read this in high school, and it stuck. That says something.

This isn’t just a crime novel about safecracking. It’s about isolation, trauma, obsession, and the strange way talent can become both a gift and a curse. Michael, the main character, doesn’t talk and that silence drives the entire story. You’re forced to live inside his head. No flashy dialogue to lean on. Just tension, memory, and the slow unraveling of how he became who he is.
The writing is tight. Clean. No wasted motion. It moves between past and present without feeling gimmicky. You see the kid he was, the damage he carried, and the choices that slowly boxed him into a life he never exactly chose but also never resisted hard enough to escape.
What hit me hardest show more back then was the loneliness. The way talent can isolate you. The way one moment can define your entire trajectory. It’s not preachy. It doesn’t moralize. It just shows you the consequences and lets them sit there.

And the safecracking details? Weirdly fascinating. It makes you see locks differently. Makes you think about how thin the line is between art and crime.
Five stars, easy. I read it years ago and still remember how it felt. That’s the mark of a good book. show less

The Lock Artist has been on my radar ever since I heard Steve Hamilton talk about it at a local author event. Now... if only my reaction to the book hadn't been so mixed.

Michael is a fantastic character, make no bones about it. Showing how those around him deal with someone who doesn't speak illuminates both Michael's character and theirs. Unfortunately, most of them seem to think he's some sort of freak, and once they learn what his talent is, all they can think of is how to exploit his skill at opening any sort of lock he's faced with. Michael is the sort of young man you root for. You want him to get away from the bad guys. You want him to find the peace and happiness he deserves. Because he is a good person trapped in the aftermath show more of the horrendous things that happened when he was eight years old. Michael behaves as though he has some sort of survivor's guilt, that he deserves whatever happens to him. That trauma seems to have stolen his will, and that's one thing that drove me nuts about The Lock Artist.

The other thing is the glacial unfolding of the story. It seemed to take forever for the story to finally arrive at the point where we learn what happened to Michael all those years ago, and once we find out what happened, a lot of Michael's behavior makes sense. Unfortunately, I'd begun to lose patience with the young man long before the reveal, which undoubtedly says more about me than it does the book. How many times does it take for a person to grow a spine and learn how to refuse to do something he knows is wrong? I know teenagers yearn for acceptance from their peers, but when those peers are repeatedly shown to be entitled jerks who don't care about anyone but themselves, how long does it take for the light bulb to go off over a person's head? In Michael's case, a long, long time.

Between the extremely slow pace and my exasperation with Michael, my enjoyment of The Lock Artist was blunted. However, your mileage may definitely vary-- especially if you have more patience than I do. Steve Hamilton has created a fantastic main character whom I shall remember for a long time, no matter how much he exasperated me. show less

The narrator of THE LOCK ARTIST is Michael, a boy without a voice. The "hook" in the opening lines is immediate.

You may remember me. Think back. The summer of 1990. I know that’s a while ago, but the wire services picked up the story and I was in every newspaper in the country. Even if you didn’t read the story, you probably heard about me. From one of your neighbors, somebody you worked with, or if you’re younger, from somebody at school. They called me “the Miracle Boy.” A few other names, too, names thought up by copy editors or newscasters trying to outdo one another. I saw “Boy Wonder” in one of the old clippings. “Terror Tyke,” that was another one, even though I was eight years old at the time. But it was the show more Miracle Boy that stuck.

We immediately want to know how Michael earnt those titles. And he spends most of THE LOCK ARTIST filling us in.

In the years since then, what happened? I grew up. I came to believe in love at first sight. I tried my hand at a few things, and if I was any good at it, that meant it had to be either totally useless or else totally against the law. That goes a long way toward explaining why I’m wearing this stylish orange jumpsuit right now, and why I’ve been wearing it every single day for the past nine years. ... in all the things I’ve done in the past years, there’s one particular thing I haven’t done. I haven’t spoken one single word out loud.

In this very one-sided conversation Michael tells us the story of his life.

So I cannot speak. I cannot make a sound. Here, though, on the page . . . it can be like we’re sitting together at a bar somewhere, just you and me, having a long talk. Yeah, I like that. You and me sitting at a bar, just talking. Or rather me talking and you listening.

I read THE LOCK ARTIST for my face-to-face book group, and Bernadette, another member of the group, reviewed it here.

I did find the structure of the novel challenging. The chapter titles are presented as 27 chapters over a 19 year period. Because Michael is not ready to tell us what happened to him when he was eight years old, the narration moves from a later time frame to an earlier one and then back to a later one, and the impression is that we are constantly darting backwards and forwards. In fact the time frame is much broader than the 21 years. In the early part I found myself going back to check the chapter headings trying to get the chronology correct in my mind. The fact that the reader is being constantly challenged to make these adjustments is probably part of the reason it becomes a satisfying read. Presenting events in chronological order would not have had the same impact. show less

The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton is one of those stories that pulls you along gently and then delivers a total kick to the gut, leaving you gasping for breath and wondering how you never saw it coming. Our protagonist, Michael, has a most unusual talent: he can pick any lock, open any safe, unlock anything locked. It is a talent which, at 18, draws Michael inevitably into the criminal world.

However, lock picking is not the only unusual thing about Michael. He hasn’t spoken a word in 10 years, traumatized by some horrific event that Hamilton dangles just out of the reader’s reach throughout the story. We follow Michael from his uncle’s garage, through a meeting with the one girl who just might save his life, through a botched show more robbery that leaves him imprisoned, until we finally arrive at that gut-kicking moment, when Hamilton reveals what caused Michael to go silent and influenced his peculiar talent.

Tightly plotted and beautifully written, The Lock Artist deservedly won the Edgar Award for 2010 and truly is one of the best of the year. Highly recommended. show less

Of all the Hamilton novels, this is my favorite. Well beyond a typical mystery, this reads like literature but has a strong narrative voice (ironically from a protagonist who cannot speak) and plenty of thrills. Also recommend The Second Life of Nick Mason by the same author.

Hamilton structures a quirky and innovative thriller around a young safecracker- or boxman- who has not spoken a word since a traumatic incident in his childhood. Raised in a rundown part of Michigan, Michael, named by the press "The Miracle Boy", finds amusement in opening locks he buys in a neighborhood antique shop. Indulging his love of drawing or spinning the chambers of the locks, Michael develops a unique skill that will prove invaluable to men who seek to exploit his talent. As Michael tells his story in chapters that alternate between the conflicts of the present and his past, from the days with comic books, drawing pads and Uncle Lido to a stint on probation, circumstances conspire to send the youth on a troubled road. Michael show more doesn't confide the exact nature of the tragedy that caused him to stop speaking, a fact that contributes to the mystery of his character, a young man who walks a solitary path, making the few choices available to him. And when fate delivers Amelia into his life, Michael senses his one chance at intimacy with another, a vague but promising future.

Shifting between the traumatic events of the past and the challenges of the present, Hamilton reveals the effects of trauma and poverty on an innocent child, a child who is not only a survivor but a young man of exceptional courage. There are no happy endings in this tale, but an example of the human spirit in the face of adversity and the healing power of love, even in the most extreme circumstances. Shocking, poignant and provocative, this unusual story is a blend of reality and hope in an indifferent world show less

This book was very poignant and moving. I found Mike to be a complex and sympathetic character. I was so into the story that when I would set it aside, I felt as if I could not talk because I had been so inside of Mike's head.

I loved learning Mike's story in bits and pieces as he would flashback. Then it would make his current story that much more clear.

Mike is a good guy, a kid really, doing the wrong things for the right reasons. His relationship with Amelia is very touching and the way he uses art to communicate with her was sweet.

Hamilton is an amazing writer and really captured not only the character of Mike but the descriptions of Mike with the locks were just perfect.

Would I ever have found that moment? Those metal pieces, which show more are so hard and unforgiving, so carefully designed not to move...Yet somehow with just the right touch it all lines up and God, that one second when it opens. That smooth, sudden, metallic release. The sound of it turning and the way it feels in your hands. They way it feels when something is locked up so tight in a metal box, with no way to get out. When you finally open it... When you finally learn how to unlock that lock... Can you even imagine how that feels?

I could not read this book fast enough though I really wanted to savor it. This is definitely a book I would highly recommend. I really loved it. I think it is already one of my favorite books of 2011.

my rating 5/5 show less