SGAG Logo

LUCAS HAMILTON

hamilton_lucas_bk_aib hamilton_lucas_bk_mib hamilton_lucas_bk_fd
 
Full Name: Lucas Hamilton
Nationality: American
Organization: CIA
Occupation Agent

Creator: Neil Maresca
Time Span: 2017 - 2020

ABOUT THE SERIES

Lucas Hamilton is an agent with the CIA.

He will be. He pretty much is when we meet him just briefly in May of 1957 in a hospital where he is recuperating from a very bad time in the hands of the Stasi and in the ever so brief exchange between him and a psychiatrist sent to analyze him, we learn enough to know we want to learn more of this interesting young man.

I say young because when the narrative then shifts back a year, we meet Hamilton attending Rutgers University, a senior studying US-USSR relations and the Cold War. It was en route a lecture he was particularly interested in that he passes a poster which catches his eye inviting people to become a Student Ambassador. That is a program started by the Eisenhower Administration to get students to complete a semester of college abroad, living with a host family, in the hopes of earning a position with the State Department or other government agencies. Hamilton is working a full-time job while attending college so the idea of a full scholarship is notable.

It will also be the door through which Hamilton will step on his unplanned trek to having to survive the questioning of the East German secret police and his entry into the employment at Langley.

We learn that Hamilton is the son of a Hungarian woman named Alexandra Károlyi "who, along with ten-year-old Lukas, had survived the Nazis and escaped the communists, arriving in England as a French refugee under the assumed name of Alexandra Carol. There she met an American GI, Harold Hamilton, married him and returned with him to the United States, where she began her new life as an American citizen, and Lukas Károlyi became Lucas Hamilton". Hamilton's origins will play important roles in his activities in the Agency.

Hamilton is an expert in languages which will aid his career considerably; his skill with foreign tongues taught him by his mother growing up such that he was proficient in English, living in America, of course, as well as his former native Hungarian. She also taught him French and German and Russians; though she hated the Soviets, she loved that country's writers and passed that on to him as well. Those latter two languages, along with the Hungarian, will lay a foundation for his personal part in fighting the growing Cold War.

BOOKS

Number of Books:3
First Appearance:2017
Last Appearance:2020

1 Appointment In Berlin Appointment In Berlin
Written by Neil Maresca
Copyright: 2017

"When we first meet Lucas, he is in a U.S. military hospital in West Germany recuperating from beatings sustained while he was a prisoner of the Stasi, the infamous East German secret police.
How did this quiet, almost reclusive young man, one of the first selected to represent the U.S. as an Eisenhower Student Ambassador for Peace, wind up in an East German prison accused of spying and murder?
It is 1957, the height of the Cold War, and Europe is awash with agents, double agents, spy networks and moles. Where, exactly, does Lucas Hamilton fit in? Is he a patriot? A spy? A sociopath, capable of killing without emotion or remorse? Or is he simply an eager young man caught up in a battle between forces he cannot control?
buy from Amazon

2 Freedom's Dawn Freedom's Dawn
Written by Neil Maresca
Copyright: 2018

It’s 1957, and South Africa is set to explode as the white minority forces apartheid on the black majority.
Khrushchev’s chief mischief-maker, General Dunayevsky has decided to exploit the situation, and has charged Cornelis Bos, code-name “The Director,” to spark a revolution. As thousands of “Freedom Marchers” descend on South Africa’s capitol, Pretoria, The Director pits black militants against whites, and white extremists against blacks.
MI-6 is compromised, and the CIA has been sidelined. It seems that nothing can stop The Director from starting a bloodbath—nothing, that is, except, newly-minted CIA agent, Lucas Hamilton, and a pretty, green-eyed, half-Irish MI-6 agent, Penelope Standish. Together they fight assassins, seduction, betrayal—and each other—to avert disaster and save South Africa."
buy from Amazon

3 Mourning In Budapest Mourning In Budapest
Written by Neil Maresca
Copyright: 2020

"Lucas is assigned to an undercover role behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary.
It is 1960, four years after the failed Hungarian revolution; and the resistance movement, 1031, is reorganizing under an enigmatic leader known only as 'Stephen'.
When 1031 manages to get a message to the CIA asking for help, Lucas is sent to find out if the request is legitimate or a KGB counter-intelligence operation designed to draw the CIA in and ‘Stephen’ out.
Lucas ... must deal with memories of his father’s assassination, and his harrowing childhood escape from Hungary, along with new threats from agents, double-agents, spies, informers, and the dangerous, dark haired, dark-eyed Zsofia, who puts a gun to his head and a hold on his heart."
buy from Amazon

MY COMMENTS

After having enjoyed the books in this series and wondering if any more was likely headed our way, I found that the author, Neil Maresca, has taken a break from spy fiction to pen a few dealing with the Trojan War. I cheer for readers who enjoy historical fiction dealing with times way back when but, being selfish, I hope he gets the spy-fi bug again soon. I would not mind more about Lucas Hamilton and definitely would enjoy anything else that Penelope Standish is involved in.

Who knows, though. As good a writer as Mr. Maresca is, I might give his Trojan War Cycle a try.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

YOUR OPINIONS

Be the first to leave your own comments about this series.

Tell us what you think of the series. Give your grade and comments.

Your Grade:
Your Comments:

To give your opinion, you must be logged in.

Sign In

Register
Disclaimer
SpyGuysAndGals is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and links with the Buy from Amazon button are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.