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 and just plain otherwise. Hot, most of those tales tend to be heated, and, as we all well show, heated very often gets intemperate. Our town’s peculiar place in the sun also requires those stories to be shady, very shady, lest each boil over into a rage. But even under the most royal of palms, things bubble up, get blistery, burn.Yes, in Miami even the shadows scorch.Neo-noir novelist James W. Hall knows about shady, and he knows about shadow, and, yes, he knows about heat, and what it can do to a town. The rash that can trigger a finger, the sweat that can blind an eye, the bake that can bloody a landscape — he sees it, feels it, lives it, writes it.Like the town from which it nabs its name, Hall’s Magic City is all hot and then some, despite the fevered cool of its composition. One hundred and two degrees in the shade of even a bright winter’s day, twice that in the head and the heart of its night, it is the snap and crackle and pop of madness making its merry way into our history, the kinda tale we tell ourselves when no one’s talking.And here the silence is telling. Spooks and mobsters, Key rats and cops, Cuban ultra-nationalists and paid-for politicos, all with secrets to be kept— or else. Like Ellroy doing LA when he got ahold of its most Confidential, or DeLillo in the Big Easy under the sign of Libra, Hall hails the conspiracies of our lives. Dirty deeds get done, and we all come undone.But it is too a book that very much respects our sodden strip of paradise, its critters, its creatures, its comforts. Wily and well-wrought, Hall has Peter Matthiessen’s learn of the lay of the land, Thomas McGuane’s feel for the way of the water, John D. MacDonald’s sense of propriety and Carl Hiaasen’s wage against the killing of the light.Beyond all that, though, Hall’s Magic City is the story of a town sprung from overheated imaginations and overstimulated drives, a mess of murder and mayhem and mystery. That it’s the cat’s 14th book to break and still manages to remain quintessentially compelling can only mean one thing — Hall’s sure damn good at telling a badass story.We gave the FIU professor of lit and writing a few Qs to A; this is what he had to say:Why Miami?It’s everything everywhere else wants to be. And, my god, what luck, it’s home.Hiaasen or Barry?Love ’em both. Carl put the Z in zany, and Dave put the green in booger.Chandler or Hammett?Who can choose? Poetry and hardass. Thompson or Spillane?Thompson. For the lurid, elbow-in-your-face prose.Crews or Willeford?You mean Feast of Snakes, Harry? Oh, my. I love A Childhood about as much as any book I’ve read. He does Florida better than nearly anyone. Charlie was dark and twisted and wonderful. Kiss Your Ass Good-Bye. How could you not love a writer who titles a novel that? And he was a colleague of James Lee Burke for a while at Miami-Dade. Now there’s some nuclear fission.Ellroy or Connelly?Mike not James. Miami is the new, weirder LA.Buchanan or Grafton?Sue’s got a few more letters to go before she’s rich as Oprah. Wish I’d thought of that 20 years ago. And Edna knows her way around badass cops and newsrooms better than anyone out there.McGee or Dortmunder?Travis, hands down.Grift or graft?Is there a difference?Knife or gun?Guns are boring. Knives are evil. It’s the third choice I like the best.
Magic City, by James W. Hall, A-minus, Narrated by Richard Allen, produced by Tantor Media, downloaded from audible.com.The publisher’s note says that this novel is based in part on real events from recently declassified documents. Thorne, a young man who has spent most of his life on Key Largo or in the Keys, has become attracted to a woman who is a police technician in Miami. He decides to move to Miami and figure out whether he and Alexandra have anything in common. When he gets to Miami, Alexandra is just getting ready to take a dog she has trained to get more search and rescue training, and asks Thorne to stay with her father. In the meantime, there is a museum exhibition opened of the photographs of a particular famous photographer, Allen Bingham. When a couple of the politicians going through the exhibit see a particular photograph, taken at the Clay-Liston fight in 1964 which shows certain people sitting together who aren’t supposed to be familiar with each other, the word is put out to get the photo and make sure no one else sees it. Two boys Snake and Carlos are commanded to get hold of the picture. Snake realizes that the picture has meaning for him too as his family was slaughtered on that night, and they might be connections between their deaths and the people who viewed the fight. The boys burn up the whole photographic exhibit and then go to Bingham’s house where, after destroying the negative they learn that he has given a copy of the photo to the neighbors across the street-Alexandra’s father. The boys come to the house the next day and are surprised by Thorne who is repairing the roof, everyone else gone. They enter the house and find the photograph, and then Thorne does something that changes the course of his life and everyone connected to him. He jumps off the roof and gets the picture away from the two boys. This begins a struggle between various interests, greedy polticians, CIA operatives, and the two boys themselves, to get the picture. It’s an activity-filled page turner that keeps you on your toes until the end.
What do You think about Magic City (2007)?
05/11/08TITLE/AUTHOR: MAGIC CITY by James W. HallRATING: 5/AGENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Mystery/2007/308 pgs SERIES/STAND ALONE: # 9 in the Thorn seriesTIME/PLACE: Present/MiamiCHARACTERS: Thorn/PI FIRST LINES: Outside Snake's window a slice of Miami moon hung like the blade of a freshly sharpened scythe.COMMENTS: 04/27/08 purchase from MOTB. Loved it! Have only read the 1st book in the series & even tho' I loved that one just had not gotten around to reading more. Magic City is the pick for the upcoming Sunday Sleuths group at MOTB. I was hooked immediately w/ the early 60's photo of the Liston/Clay fight in Miami. My brother, Ted, aged 5-6 in 1964 was in the Miami area w/ grandparents at this time & had his photo taken w/ Sonny Liston the day before the fight ... who knows if the photo is still around but do remember it. So the personal nostalgia hook along w/ the intriguing Thorne and then placing the guy from the laid back keys into the city of Miami -- the contrasts of place & time worked very well. About 40 yrs later, a photo is discovered from the fight that includes some very influential & not so legit people that could be incriminating. It also could be a clue for Snake & Carlos Morales -- their parents & sister were killed at this time & they beleive this photo contains the gang of murderers.
—Pam
It's been flippin' yonks since I've read a James W Hall - I think it was Off The Charts was the last one. Did they stop publishing him over here for some reason? The reprobates. Was never a finer writer than Mr W Hall, one of the top Jameses of crime fiction - along with the likes of Lee Burke, Ellroy and Crumley - the unholy quartet of murder and mayhem and marvelous prose.The inimitable Thorn travels from his snug home ground of the Florida Keys to the bustling and jostling devil's playground of Miami City to look after his girlfriend's ailing Dad while she's away doing search and rescue training. While Thorn is manfully and self-sufficiently mending the roof, two guys show up looking for a photograph. The two guys are brothers, survivors of a massacre that took place on the night the picture was taken at the Clay - Lister fight in 1964, and the picture reveals certain unpleasant truths to those who know that they're looking at. Thorn being Thorn responds by jumping off the roof and landing on one of the guys. Thus begins a whole lot of murder and fighting and hunting and running around and horribly emotional repercussions that are all the hallmarks of a good Hall.Fantastic to read, these books are, pure, top-notch literate thriller pleasure. I must have more of these.
—Nigel
