Before Thorn fell in love with crime-scene photographer Alexandra Rafferty, he was involved with Anne Joy, a beautiful woman who abandoned a violent life to forge a new, happier one in the Florida Keys. But her past includes her sadistic brother Vic, now a wealthy rogue businessman who specialize...
I only discovered this author within the last 6 months and have read 5 or 6 of his novels. I rated this one 3-star instead of the usual 4-star mostly because the level of gore was a little past my cut-off point. The plot was extremely well-developed and complex; the writing style was fascinatin...
I was surprised to find that there was a "Florida mystery" series, a la Travis McGee (starting with The Deep Blue Goodbye) and even Carl Hiaasen's books, that I hadn't read or, in fact, even heard of before. This was poet James Hall's Thorn series, which opens with Under Cover of Daylight, writte...
This book was fun! I enjoyed the quirky characters and situations and it was a quick, engrossing read. Only problem is when I compared my reaction with the cover reviews... it seemed like I'd just finished a totally different book than THEY were talking about! Did I just plain miss the serious...
I liked the first Thorn book (Under Cover of Daylight), despite its idiosyncracies, that I immediately grabbed the second book in the series, Tropical Freeze. Very similar to the first, especially in its way of telling the "mystery" from all points of view, including both the villians and the her...
http://www.miamisunpost.com/archives/...Bound 03/08/07102 in the ShadeIn James W. Hall’s Magic City, Even the Shadows Have Shadows— and They BurnKey rats and cops, Cuban ultra-nationalists and paid-for politicos, all with secrets to be kept— or else.By John HoodMiami seethes with story. High, low...
I learned something about Cherokee Indians and also about schizophrenia from this crime novel. And then there were some truly nasty characters that were conceived in "the forests of the night." Here's a quote:"What she [Charlotte, the cop protagonist] absorbed in those lonesome hours in the fores...
He wasn’t rattled as he’d been earlier in the evening, when Myra Rockhill blocked his shot. Nor was he disappointed by tonight’s outcome. Even though the other targets had been arrayed before him briefly like a platter full of delectables, there was no profit in faulting himself for his mediocre ...
Branches swatted and clawed at my face and bare arms, drew blood more than once, but I wasn’t feeling anything. The second time the engine stalled, I had to tilt it out of the water to clear the tangle of roots and weeds from the prop before I could forge on. Finally in the main channel, I flatte...
It was sopping with cool water. The oversized yellow hibiscus blooms had turned two shades darker, and the cotton was starting to shred from being dragged repeatedly across the jagged stones. It was the fourth time he’d dunked and retrieved his shirt, and he was starting to get the hang of it. Ca...
—KENNETH BURKE,PHILOSOPHY OF LITERARY FORM In each of our twelve novels, a member of a broken family finds an ingenious way to transcend his or her crazy stress. If you Google “every family is dysfunctional,” you’ll get around 144,000 results in .2 second. Compare that with Googling “every family...
He stared down at them for a while, then out of habit he cut them into small squares and swiped some butter across the grids and watched it melt. He tried pouring maple syrup over them but that did nothing to rouse his hunger either. He pushed the plate away and took a sip of the black coffee and...