Settling for second-best is not an option for crime-writer Steve Hamilton

Author Steve Hamilton cancelled his book contract with St Martin’s Press to sign on with GP Putnam’s Sons for his latest book. Carlos Osorio / AP

For a time, Steve Hamilton felt like an escaped convict, not unlike the main character in his latest novel – and all he was doing was switching publishers.

The award-winning crime writer startled the book world last year when he cancelled his rumoured near-seven-figure, four-book contract with St Martin's Press two months before the publication of his novel The Second Life of Nick Mason, then signed days later (for even more money, reportedly) with GP Putnam's Sons.

Hamilton, a two-time recipient of the Edgar Award, had worried St Martin’s wasn’t committed to promoting his work.

“It felt like ... this book was just going to go out there and die,” the author says during a recent interview at a cafe on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “It was just the most horrible feeling to know they were just sending this book out to die.”

With publishers releasing hundreds of thousands of books each year, authors often complain about a lack of attention. It is much less common for one of Hamilton’s stature to speak out – and even more rare to buy back such a large advance to get away.

Hamilton, 55, had published all of his work with St Martin’s since catching the attention of beloved and influential crime-fiction editor Ruth Cavin nearly 20 years ago. Cavin died in 2011 and another close associate at St Martin’s, publisher and executive vice president Matthew Shear, died in 2013.

Hamilton recalled the hostile final meeting with the publisher last year, at which there were warnings from St Martin’s that he was ruining his career.

“I hope authors do get a message that it’s OK to bet on yourself,” says Hamilton. “It’s OK not to settle on second-best.”

A spokeswoman for St Martin’s, Tracey Guest, said the publisher has “always been and will continue to be fans of Steve’s. We only wish him the very best”.

The Second Life of Nick Mason, which was published last week, happens to be about a man sprung from jail. Mason was sentenced to 25 years to life for murder, only to be freed after five years thanks to the influence of a crime boss in the prison. There is one condition: Mason must be on call for any "work" – an errand, an execution – his new boss needs done on the outside.

Set in Chicago, the book is the first of several planned Mason stories by Hamilton, best known for A Cold Day in Paradise, Winter of the Wolf Moon and other ­thrillers featuring ex-policeman Alex McKnight.

“I was just itching to do something different,” Hamilton says. “I wondered, what if I tried to create a fully committed career criminal and still have that bond with the reader like Donald Westlake did with the Parker series.”

A native of Detroit, he always loved crime fiction and cites Raymond Chandler and James Crumley as favourites. At the University of Michigan, he won a Hopwood Award for fiction, but spent much of his 20s as an information developer at IBM, seemingly resigned to being a would-be author who never quite gets around to writing a book.

He changed his destiny by changing his life: he joined a writer’s group that gathered weekly in the basement of the Starr Library in Rhinebeck, New York, about 100 miles north of New York City and not far from his home.

“Every Thursday night there would be six or seven writers in this basement, waiting for me,” he says. “So now I have to write something for Thursday, got to write a chapter, got to write a ­story.”

Hamilton's Cold Day in Paradise, published in 1998, won an Edgar and a Shamus Award for best first novel. He won the Edgar for best novel in 2011 for The Lock Artist, his acclaimed story of a thief traumatised as a boy into silence. He found a lock expert to teach him the trade and still keeps locks around for practice, calling it a "great way to clear your head".

He enjoys the camaraderie of the crime-writing community, whether talking baseball with Elmore Leonard or listening to Ed McBain share memories of working with Alfred Hitchcock on The Birds. He received blurbs from Stephen King, Harlen Coben and Michael Connelly among others for his new novel.

“The bigger they are, the more gracious and modest and generous they are, like the Lee Childs and Don Winslows and Harlen and Michael Connelly. They just set the standard,” he says.

He has a theory about why crime writers are easier to be around than literary writers.

“I think because they get to kill people – they get it out of their system,” he says with a laugh. “Sue Grafton said her first book was killing her first husband and she just felt so much better.”

Hamilton, who has been married for 25 years and has two children, tries to restrict any drama to his narratives. He remained with St Martin’s after other writers brought in by Cavin had left, and stayed with IBM despite his success as an author. Only when he signed his deal with St Martin’s in 2014, did he finally give notice to his longtime employer.

“I went into my manager’s office and sat down with her,” he says. “I told her that, after 32 years with the company, it was time to leave. She really didn’t want to lose me, so she said, ‘We’ll be happy to match what they’re paying you to stay with us. What would it take to keep you at IBM?

“I gave her the exact total dollar amount on the contract. She looked at me for maybe three seconds, and then she said: ‘OK, Steve! Have a great retirement!’”