Gone Wild

Thorn Mystery #4

by James W. Hall

From James W. Hall, the highly acclaimed best-selling author of Hard Aground, Mean High Tide , and Bones Of Coral , comes a stunning and superbly rendered new thriller in which the most deadly animals in the jungle are the ones that kill for money. With one poacher's bullet, a young woman's life is tragically, brutally taken--and her mother's is shattered forever.  Thus begins Gone Wild , James W. Hall's electrifying new novel, which penetrates the lush, sultry jungles of Africa and Malaysia to explore the mercenary slaughter of animals-and to expose the savagery and humanity in us all. Gone Wild brings back Thorn, the haunting, quixotic hero last seen in the best-seller Mean High Tide .  And in a novel filled with the author's signatures exotic locales, vise-tightening suspense, steamy sexuality, hypnotic prose--Hall introduces a bold new one of the toughest, most complex female characters in modern fiction.  Allison Farleigh's desperate struggle to save the endangered orangutans from poachers--and to uncover the truth about her daughter's murder--give the novel its passion and its fire.  And the shocking international conspiracy she exposes in the process gives Gone Wild its relentless, heart-pounding tension. A mesmerizing journey into the heart of darkness, Gone Wild is one of those rare thrillers that not only makes you sweat--it makes you think.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Adventure

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James W. Hall is an Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author whose books have been translated into a dozen languages. He has written twenty-one novels, four books of poetry, two collections of short stories, and two works of non-fiction. He also won a John D. MacDonald Award for Excellence in Florida Fiction, presented by the JDM Bibliophile.

He has a master’s degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in literature from the University of Utah. He was a professor of literature and creative writing at Florida International University for 40 years where he taught such writers as Vicky Hendricks, Christine Kling, Barbara Parker and Dennis Lehane.

Reviews

[Barbi Vandermolen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this Thorn book…there was very little Thorn, very preachy about animal rights/endangered animals and the point of view of the orangutan was just too much!

[Pop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Thorn but it is worth 3+ stars anyway.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gone Wild is another entry in Hall's long running Thorn series, although Thorn himself doesn't show up for quite a number of pages. Told mostly from Allison Farleigh's point of view, this wild thriller about exotic animals, poachers and wildlife preservation has plenty of memorable characters. Maybe too memorable in some cases, as the bad guys in this book are quite over the top, both in craziness and money. Like all too many recent thrillers, it depends too much on stupid police. In one case, Allison is shot at while in a zoo at night, and the night watchman is killed, but the police don't believe her story at all, pinning the killing on a random robbery. And no one in power seems willing to lift a hand to help out, despite the mounting evidence. And the two main antagonists, Orlon and Rayon (I kid you not), just don't seem bright enough to have survived this long. So it was a fun read, but nothing too believable or deep. Maybe a good beach or airplane paperback.

[M. Sprouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorn Takes a Back Seat... Again!

A very interesting and suspenseful novel. The villian's were fun and challenging If this had been a stand alone novel, I would have liked it even more. I kept waiting for Thorn to show up, no I mean really show up. This is the second book in a row that short-changed readers on Thorn. It was a good read and I can only imagine how much better it might be with more cowbell, I mean Thorn.

[Sandra Merlo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like reading a master's thesis

I have enjoyed Thorn=centered novels but this one read more like a thesis. No, I do not support the stealing and killing of endangered species, but I chose this book to read while recovering from surgery. Reading it made me feel like I was back in college. And, the characters were way too "out there". I admit I finished it but only because it wad my only reading material.

[Tom Stadler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing, had potential with an interesting premise but bogged down in anticruelty to animals diatribes while characters behaved in unbelievable ways. Physical injuries that may have killed a person or at least disabled them are ignored as though they didn't happen. It's listed as a Thorn novel but he's a minor character at best with little impact on the action.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a Thorn book.

The level of violence, depravity, torture and evil characters is well beyond the first three Thorn Series books. I guess each one has to more extreme than the previous. Thorn plays a minor role in this one. Started skimming once Thorn was locked in a cage and tortured after getting attacked by a Bear and feral pig.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have liked other books by JamesW Hall... but not this one so much... I agree that endangered animals absolutely should be protected and treasured but somehow this got a little preachy and Thorns comment about anothers sibling was extremely distasteful... did not really like any of the characters much..

[Robert James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a Thorn book in many years and he was barely in this one but it didn't matter. The story is terrific and has some things to say about animal protection while never wavering from the plot. Only negative was that I thought the ending was rushed which means to me the author wanted to get the story in under 400 pages.

[Deborah Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very good read even though I've liked other Thorn books better because in this book he took a back seat to the other characters in the book. I'm going to read the next book because the Thorn series is addictive.

[RBReichart · Rating 5 out of 5]

All plot (except for the coincidences), almost no character development.

That is, a movie storý -- like the one Orlon sees himself living.

But in all its complications, still reasonably coherent and enjoyable..

[G.Richard Mccafferty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

This book brings the awareness of our need to keep this earth and all its creatures safe from the people that would destroy it and even if this book be fiction realize it is happening ....

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a damn fine series. Hall really does is research, in this literate thriller. That can scare the bejeezus out of ya. Always a blast to return to Florida, the everglades and wherever Thorn is asked for his help.

[False · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hall does research so his reader learns in each book. This novel it's about the orangutan, world wide corruptions through wealth and indifference and ....Brunei. I read it. Not thrilled.

[Kim A. Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Excellent story. Really liked the plot and the characters were quite interesting. Really liked the twist of this tale and the eventual resolution of the tale.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK read but not memorable or believable.....

[Susan Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hall writes a great mystery - how can you go wrong when your bad guys are Orlon and Rayon!

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 2002. Explores the mercenary slaughter of animals in Africa.

[Varrick Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loving rereading these titles

[JonnyThumper · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars is probably too high. A couple very hokey devices and, for me, the description of violence/testing on animals was nauseatingly gratuitous. I don’t think I’ll read another of these books

[Mikhail Kagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wild life thriller

I completely attached and amazed by this novel. It takes me only 4 days to finish read this book. Definitely I will follow James Hall novels. Thank you!

[Don]

Young orangutan is smuggled to US, by a couple criminals who are brothers. Some disturbing cruelty to animals is described in book.

[Luke Christenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story idea - bad execution - how it was once was a best sellers beyond me

[Varrick Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuing the "Thorn" series I started back in my Navy days.

This one is less about Thorn, than about a mother dealing with the death of her daughter, betrayal, and murder in the context of illegal animal trafficking.

Thorn, for the most part, is a foil for the mother, a childhood friend of Thorn's. It almost seems like each time he attempts to help her, some bad guy or another is beating him down. Thorn always gets up again.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#4 in the Thorn series. Thorn is a free spirited minimalist living in the Florida Keys. Usually a reluctant hero, extremely loyal Thorn is never-the-less a knight errant.

Thorn becomes entangled in the crusades of childhood friend Allison Farleigh, founder of the Wildlife Protection League, an organization dedicated to saving exotic endangered animals. When Allison's eldest daughter is shot dead while accompanying her mother and younger sister on the annual orangutan census in the wilds of Borneo, Thorn gets embroiled in the case, which eventually pits him against a sociopathic pair of twins engaged in the brokering of rare animals to zoological collectors-and, lurking behind them, a rich and powerful collector whose designs bring the action to Brunei for a brutally satisfying denouement.

[Cathy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. This was a really great book, with many twists and turns. I read it non-stop each day...I just did not want to put it down! The characters were very real, and I can see the situation happening even today. But one big question: whatever happened to Jason Bond? After the incident at the house, we never heard from him again. That felt like a loose-end that wasn't tied up. I will recommend this book and author. This was a very good story and plot.

[Marti · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a fair bit of action in this book which deals with a woman who is the head of a group trying to protect endangered species, and some people who are trafficking in these poor animals. Early in the story, her older daughter is shot and killed by barbaric hunters who resent what the group is trying to do. The reader gets to follow what happens to an orphaned orangutan, some of which isn't very pretty. It takes place partly in Borneo, a little in the Middle East, and mostly in Florida.

[Marilyn Pocius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was compulsively readable. James Hall can really write but his characters are just so over-the-top and unbelievable that I can't always tell whether he's kidding. The bad guys here (Orlon and Rayon!) are so horribly evil in a stupid way, and then we have the REAL bad guy, who is even more evil and harder to accept as a human. Still it's a lot of violent, action-packed fun.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love James Hall...if you like books about Florida, you'll like him too. I'm still getting through them, and so far I've not found any that I didn't like. Adore the Thorn character!
Like all the others, this was great.

[Dan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth in a Thorn Series.. unfortunately, I was unable to locate the first three from my library.. It was an interesting tale and had a great deal of action and intrigue... enough to get me to want more