Nick Bastion

Nick Bastion, a character in the Crimes of Passion series, is a popular crime novelist. He is first mentioned in Book 1, Chapter 3, and first seen in Chapter 4.

Appearance
Nick has brown eyes, dark brown hair, and tan skin. He keeps his face clean-shaven, and wears a black suit with vest, white dress shirt, and gold tie and handkerchief.

Personality
Luke says he is a pompous asshat, which you agree. Trystan believes he doesn't have the stomach to commit real murder.

Background
According to his dossier, he has written 43 mystery novels, 26 of which are bestsellers, including 24 in the Vikki Rayne series. He also has a bachelors in comparative literature from the University of Rochester.

He formed the new Hand of Mahra cult in the early 21st century after reading about the original group on a Twitter thread and thought it would be fun to recreate, Unlike the original cult, the new Hand of Mahra only cared about drug-induced orgies. He ended up bringing Anika Desphande into the cult, where she developed a truth serum to blackmail members and keep them in line.

At some point, Tony Kowalski contacted him and offered to forge the same masks and knives that the original cult used, which Nick agreed to because he thought it would up the mystique.

Book 1

 * Chapter 3: Body Language (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 4: The Royal Treatment
 * Chapter 5: Up In Flames
 * Chapter 6: Sleep When You're Dead (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 9: The Rite Track
 * Chapter 10: Behind the Mask
 * Chapter 11: Reasonable Doubt
 * Chapter 12: Sabbatical (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 14: The Heat
 * Chapter 17: The Long Goodbye (Mentioned; Determinant)

Trystan Thorne
He is Trystan's friend. They play poker twice a month.

Your Character
You meet him when you attend the gala with Trystan. He is one of your persons of interest in Sonja Dormer's murder. If you question him after swapping dance partners, he tells you that Trystan's video surveillance should prove that he was at Trystan's all night.

Ruby Webster
Ruby is a big fan of his work, and considers him to be her favorite author. Even though she says the science behind them is garbage, she enjoys reading his novels.

Miscellaneous

 * -|In Game=

Trivia

 * His character model resembles Winston Torres from Foreign Affairs.
 * He shares the same forename as Nick Peralta from Home for the Holidays.
 * In Chapter 10, he is revealed to be Vosegus, the high ranking Hand of Mahra cultist mentioned in Bird's flash drive in Chapter 3.
 * His crimes include aiding and abetting, supplying narcotics and affiliation with organized crime.
 * In Chapter 11, he reveals that he re-established the cult after learning about it on Twitter and thought it would be fun to recreate.