Exit Strategy

I just finished reading an advanced copy of Exit Strategy, the second Nick Mason adventure novel by Steve Hamilton.  To be honest, I was not all that crazy about the first one, titled The Second Life of Nick Mason. Mason was a prisoner at a high level security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana who made an agreement with a incarcerated criminal mastermind to work for him on the outside if he arranged Mason's  freedom from prison.  He wound up back home in Chicago, having to murder whoever the mob boss told him to.  I frankly found it a bit depressing, although the story did take place in Chicago, including the south side, where I grew up.  I liked Exit Strategy much better, although I must point out that Hamilton either didn't know the south side neighborhood of Beverly, which is two miles from where I grew up, or else purposely altered it to suit his own purposes.  In the book, it was where an IRA terrorist and killer lived above a bar, and Hamilton describes  Beverly as an Irish working class neighborhood.  It is heavily Irish, but it a community with huge mansion along Longwood Drive, and very upscale housing everywhere else.  What's the deal, Steve? Slacking off on your research?