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Thorn Mystery #1
Under Cover of Daylight
The first Thorn mystery from Edgar Award–winning author James W. Hall: a story of revenge in the Florida Keys that “starts good and stays good, right to the end” (Chicago Tribune).
Thorn’s parents died the day he was born, run off the road by a drunk driver on their way back from the hospital. The baby lived, the offender beat the rap, and both went on with their lives—until nineteen years later, when Thorn took revenge, hunting down his parents’ killer and taking his life in a vain attempt to bring back those who had been lost. Two decades later, Thorn remains scarred by his crime. He lives in Key West, selling fishing flies and keeping an eye on Kate Truman, the woman who adopted him. But now he has lost her, too, to a pair of brutal murderers whom the police have no hope of tracking down. Thorn knows the Keys, and he will find them—but before he can take revenge, he must confront the horror of the first time he killed.
The first in the series featuring Thorn, who “may remind you of John D. MacDonald’s immortal Travis McGee . . . or perhaps Lee Child’s Jack Reacher” (TheWashington Post Book World), this intense thriller is filled with both danger and emotional depth. Elmore Leonard has called James W. Hall’s debut novel “a beauty.”
Thorn’s parents died the day he was born, run off the road by a drunk driver on their way back from the hospital. The baby lived, the offender beat the rap, and both went on with their lives—until nineteen years later, when Thorn took revenge, hunting down his parents’ killer and taking his life in a vain attempt to bring back those who had been lost. Two decades later, Thorn remains scarred by his crime. He lives in Key West, selling fishing flies and keeping an eye on Kate Truman, the woman who adopted him. But now he has lost her, too, to a pair of brutal murderers whom the police have no hope of tracking down. Thorn knows the Keys, and he will find them—but before he can take revenge, he must confront the horror of the first time he killed.
The first in the series featuring Thorn, who “may remind you of John D. MacDonald’s immortal Travis McGee . . . or perhaps Lee Child’s Jack Reacher” (TheWashington Post Book World), this intense thriller is filled with both danger and emotional depth. Elmore Leonard has called James W. Hall’s debut novel “a beauty.”
298 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1987
788 people are currently reading
1519 people want to read
About the author
James W. Hall
89 books487 followersLibrarian 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
January 28, 2010
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, written in 1987. Hall mines familiar territory but does it with some panache and flair.
Thorn is a lazy beach bum, with a reputation as a gifted fly maker. He sells the flies to local fishing guides, and manages to get by, living in a shack on an island near Key West in Florida. He's getting a little older and beginning to branch out a little bit, include a new romance with a local public defender. His dark past continues to haunt him, though.
As is often the case in these Florida thrillers, there are shady real estate deals, some mindless violence, passionate (and sometimes not) sex and, of course, drugs. These all begin to touch on Thorn in sometimes quite surprising ways and he is gradually dragged into a cycle of violence that almost literally explodes in the end. There are several wild coincidences and nearly implausibly far fetched connections, but somehow Hall manages to make it all seemed possible, or even likely.
The book is told in a omniscent third person, switching to the point of view of nearly all the main characters, which is normally something I don't really care for. I like my mysteries to be in first person, like Spenser (The Godwulf Manuscript) and McGee, where we get to play along in the mystery. But Hall doesn't really seem to be all that interested in mystery, as he tells plenty of the story from the villian's point of view. And yet it remained interesting and well written, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Some of the "boy, how awful has Florida gotten" whines can get a little tiring, but besides that, each point of view as its own distinctive voice, which makes the varying storytelling work.
I liked the book enough that I went to the library and got the second book in the series, Tropical Freeze. I'm curious to see how Thorn develops, because he doesn't really have the background for a mystery series. He's not a detective or even a freelance "fixer of broken things" like McGee. It'll be interesting to follow his growth. Glad I found out about the books!
Thorn is a lazy beach bum, with a reputation as a gifted fly maker. He sells the flies to local fishing guides, and manages to get by, living in a shack on an island near Key West in Florida. He's getting a little older and beginning to branch out a little bit, include a new romance with a local public defender. His dark past continues to haunt him, though.
As is often the case in these Florida thrillers, there are shady real estate deals, some mindless violence, passionate (and sometimes not) sex and, of course, drugs. These all begin to touch on Thorn in sometimes quite surprising ways and he is gradually dragged into a cycle of violence that almost literally explodes in the end. There are several wild coincidences and nearly implausibly far fetched connections, but somehow Hall manages to make it all seemed possible, or even likely.
The book is told in a omniscent third person, switching to the point of view of nearly all the main characters, which is normally something I don't really care for. I like my mysteries to be in first person, like Spenser (The Godwulf Manuscript) and McGee, where we get to play along in the mystery. But Hall doesn't really seem to be all that interested in mystery, as he tells plenty of the story from the villian's point of view. And yet it remained interesting and well written, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Some of the "boy, how awful has Florida gotten" whines can get a little tiring, but besides that, each point of view as its own distinctive voice, which makes the varying storytelling work.
I liked the book enough that I went to the library and got the second book in the series, Tropical Freeze. I'm curious to see how Thorn develops, because he doesn't really have the background for a mystery series. He's not a detective or even a freelance "fixer of broken things" like McGee. It'll be interesting to follow his growth. Glad I found out about the books!
May 6, 2016
Loved this unusual murder mystery set in the Florida Keys. Thought it might be an updated Travis McGee, but there's no real similarity besides location and underemployment. Interesting characters and a smidge of hot sex thrown in. The murders themselves are pretty upsetting but this book is gritty without the detachment present in most noir. It makes for a nice change.
April 28, 2023
Really remarkable thriller.
I never knew where this one was going. Kept me in suspense forever. But it was good, maybe even great. Who knows, I might have to rethink it later. Try to figure out what I just read.
I never knew where this one was going. Kept me in suspense forever. But it was good, maybe even great. Who knows, I might have to rethink it later. Try to figure out what I just read.
February 10, 2017
James W. Hall's debut novel is not profound or significant. It is a derivative Florida crime novel that launched a long-running series.
"Under Cover of Daylight" is a mess, structurally and thematically. Its failures are mind-boggling at times.
The novel starts with a flashback scene in which the main character, Thorn, kills another man. I would say "spoiler alert," but it is right there in the product description. Oh well.
After the prologue, readers are reintroduced to the killer, er, main character, who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of this event at the murder scene — with his skinny-dipping girlfriend. I wish I was making this up. We learn that the murder victim killed Thorn's parents on the day of his birth. The murder victim was drunk and ran his family's car off the road into the same body of water that his girlfriend is enjoying, the exact place that Thorn killed him. Ham-fisted?
In the second chapter, the audience learns that the girlfriend, who is a public defender, is smuggling marijuana with the main character's foster mother. Is this world starting to feel small to anyone else yet? Is everybody related to each other? Does everything have to tie back to Thorn?
From this point, characters and story lines begin to intersect with astonishing regularity. It is elaborate, yet ineffective.
Hall loses sight of his themes — forgiveness, loss, and vengeance — amid the flotsam and jetsam that comes to define his novel. The disparate parts, mainly genre traditions, overrun the story as a whole. While chaos and conflict are essential when creating suspense in this genre, it must serve an overall purpose, otherwise it is exploitative and tawdry. In an ideal world, authors would scaffold their descriptions of humanity's depravity toward something greater, an artistic statement — either pro or con, always unspoken though — about the human condition.
For the majority of this novel though, Hall seems unable to get ahead of his characters and their actions. The characters are so ill-defined that they bounce between noir and screwball. And, it's not part of his plan. The author clearly doesn't have an overarching point when a character murders someone, then dresses up like a zany golf pro and hits three dozen golf balls at a house to rescue a hostage. This isn't Dashiell Hammett or Jonathan Latimer. It is just bad.
I will read a couple more Thorn novels to see if the author finds his footing with this character. After all, it took him two attempts to create a somewhat believable female lead in a standalone novel. (See my reviews for "Body Language" and "Rough Draft.")
"Under Cover of Daylight" is a mess, structurally and thematically. Its failures are mind-boggling at times.
The novel starts with a flashback scene in which the main character, Thorn, kills another man. I would say "spoiler alert," but it is right there in the product description. Oh well.
After the prologue, readers are reintroduced to the killer, er, main character, who is celebrating the 20th anniversary of this event at the murder scene — with his skinny-dipping girlfriend. I wish I was making this up. We learn that the murder victim killed Thorn's parents on the day of his birth. The murder victim was drunk and ran his family's car off the road into the same body of water that his girlfriend is enjoying, the exact place that Thorn killed him. Ham-fisted?
In the second chapter, the audience learns that the girlfriend, who is a public defender, is smuggling marijuana with the main character's foster mother. Is this world starting to feel small to anyone else yet? Is everybody related to each other? Does everything have to tie back to Thorn?
From this point, characters and story lines begin to intersect with astonishing regularity. It is elaborate, yet ineffective.
Hall loses sight of his themes — forgiveness, loss, and vengeance — amid the flotsam and jetsam that comes to define his novel. The disparate parts, mainly genre traditions, overrun the story as a whole. While chaos and conflict are essential when creating suspense in this genre, it must serve an overall purpose, otherwise it is exploitative and tawdry. In an ideal world, authors would scaffold their descriptions of humanity's depravity toward something greater, an artistic statement — either pro or con, always unspoken though — about the human condition.
For the majority of this novel though, Hall seems unable to get ahead of his characters and their actions. The characters are so ill-defined that they bounce between noir and screwball. And, it's not part of his plan. The author clearly doesn't have an overarching point when a character murders someone, then dresses up like a zany golf pro and hits three dozen golf balls at a house to rescue a hostage. This isn't Dashiell Hammett or Jonathan Latimer. It is just bad.
I will read a couple more Thorn novels to see if the author finds his footing with this character. After all, it took him two attempts to create a somewhat believable female lead in a standalone novel. (See my reviews for "Body Language" and "Rough Draft.")
December 23, 2013
This was a very good debut, even if it was over 25 years ago.
The sense of place and the people of the Florida keys, was really well done. As in a lot of mysteries/P.I. tales, Thorn has been living with something he settled his way 30 years ago. And the woman he meets in the present, becomes a challenge. Will continue with this series.
The sense of place and the people of the Florida keys, was really well done. As in a lot of mysteries/P.I. tales, Thorn has been living with something he settled his way 30 years ago. And the woman he meets in the present, becomes a challenge. Will continue with this series.
April 30, 2019
I kept waiting for the characters to develop and the plot to hang together. I kept thinking that people don't talk to each other like the characters did, and if they do, somebody tells them they're not making any sense. There were flashes of brilliant, poetic writing--perfect for poetry, but maybe not as well-suited to a novel, unless the other elements like plot, character development, etc., are polished enough to hold the thing together. I note that this was the first in a long-running series featuring Thorn. I hope the books got better with time.
June 7, 2010
James Hall has written 15 books but this is my first one. Was recommended in a readers' advisory book. I liked it, but didn't love it. Suspect it may appeal to men more. The plot worked well. While you could tell what was likely to happen, the story never got dry. The characters are rather dry though and some are downright sociopathic. Short chapters keep the story moving. Two very sensual scenes and several rather graphic murders included.
December 10, 2013
The plot was outside the realm of reality as I know it. At the beginning I thought that even with the inclusion of some violence and vague sex scenes, it would inte resting enough to want to give this series a chance. After reading further into the book, I discovered I was completely wrong! The sordid and violent details and never ending profanity convinced me to close this book and go on to more titles that are of interest to me.
November 16, 2019
Mediocre crime revenge story with characters that I just couldn’t care about. A public defender who smuggled marijuana so she can save wood rats?
December 11, 2018
I'm always a little wary when I review a book that was written decades ago. They don't write em like they used to, is sometimes a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm no spring chicken. I was reading books in 1987, but in general, I think fiction writing has gotten better. Forgive me Dickens, Hemingway, Chandler, Twain and the rest.
"Under Cover of Daylight" starts out a little murky and sporadic. Or maybe it's crystal clear and consistent, but I just couldn't care about the characters that much. The first half had me questioning my choice and I always and I mean always finish the book, well at at least in this decade. The second half moved faster, was more succinct and seemed to mesh together for a better read. I could enjoy the action and quirky characters better, which are the strengths of this novel.
I was conflicted on how to rate this book. I mean the first half was two stars and the second four. So I guess I'll give it three stars. But stars don't always reflect the whole story. Let's just say I'm glad I read this book and I'd recommend it... if you have patience.
"Under Cover of Daylight" starts out a little murky and sporadic. Or maybe it's crystal clear and consistent, but I just couldn't care about the characters that much. The first half had me questioning my choice and I always and I mean always finish the book, well at at least in this decade. The second half moved faster, was more succinct and seemed to mesh together for a better read. I could enjoy the action and quirky characters better, which are the strengths of this novel.
I was conflicted on how to rate this book. I mean the first half was two stars and the second four. So I guess I'll give it three stars. But stars don't always reflect the whole story. Let's just say I'm glad I read this book and I'd recommend it... if you have patience.
April 24, 2013
Absolutely love James W. Hall. My wife and I discovered him when we were living in Key West. No other author captures the physical surroundings of the Florida Keys as well as Mr. Hall. That combined with his multi-layered characters and superb storyline, all set in your favorite locales, will have you hooked.
March 3, 2014
I really liked this book! It is very apparent that it is written pre modern technology...and I loved that about it. It was almost refreshing! The body count was pretty high in this book. The story line was engrossing and had twists and turns. I read this book in just over 24 hours. I couldn't put it down!
August 2, 2018
I feel like this one got away the writer. I liked how how the fondness for the setting wasn't too nostalgic or sentimental. And there were some big themes drifting around, but nothing ever really came together. There were a lot of coincidences driving the plot along and everyone was brought together for an explosive showdown at the end but it rang false for me.
June 17, 2015
Okay read.
Thorn and Sarah grieving and filled with revenge. Many good and evil characters are killed. Their relationship and anger ruling their life. Have to read this book again, maybe than I'll get it.
Thorn and Sarah grieving and filled with revenge. Many good and evil characters are killed. Their relationship and anger ruling their life. Have to read this book again, maybe than I'll get it.
June 18, 2024
An odd and not entirely successful attempt at mixing a crime thriller with revenge and romance.
January 7, 2025
Mixed feelings about this one. Starting with the good, I liked Thorn himself, didn't mind the time we spend with him in the book. The description and writing were both top notch, really enjoyed the flow of the writing and the word choice. There are several villains in the book, and the main two, Milburn and Irv, were highly memorable and creepy.
Moving on to the bad, I mentioned that I enjoyed the time we spent with Thorn, unfortunately, that's not a lot of time. This is one of those books that likes to jump viewpoints, which means we spend a lot of time with characters that I don't care for. I didn't care about Susan's story, and while I didn't mind the time spent with Irv and Milburn, it's still not what I came here for. It also ruins the mystery, all the reveals that should have mattered, like that Kate really was running drugs, who the killer was, etc. don't matter. This whole thing really underpins my big gripe with the novel on the whole, I was promised a dark story about a brooding antihero who, in the words of the teaser "can almost taste the rage as he stalks her killer and waits." because of the constant POV hopping, maybe a third of the novel, if that, is spent delivering on that promise.
Even the segments that do focus on Thorn don't really fulfil that. The characters talk a lot about what a dark brooding loner Thorn is, but he doesn't come off that way. He doesn't do much brooding, no more than anybody else would after finding out their mother-figure had been raped and killed, he's not much of a loner, having a small but not insubstantial social network, and describing him as "stalking [his mother figure's] killer" is being a little generous. Of the four people responsible for his mother's death, he is only directly involved in the killing of one, and even then, he fails to actually do the job himself, needing his girlfriend to do the job for him. One last note on the ugly side of the book, there's a graphic and needless rape scene in the novel that serves no purpose other than to establish our main villain as totally depraved, which we already knew. Later on he forces a couple of women to strip naked and jump out of boat for no reason at all, which just felt like and excuse to describe some T&A for the book.
Moving on to the bad, I mentioned that I enjoyed the time we spent with Thorn, unfortunately, that's not a lot of time. This is one of those books that likes to jump viewpoints, which means we spend a lot of time with characters that I don't care for. I didn't care about Susan's story, and while I didn't mind the time spent with Irv and Milburn, it's still not what I came here for. It also ruins the mystery, all the reveals that should have mattered, like that Kate really was running drugs, who the killer was, etc. don't matter. This whole thing really underpins my big gripe with the novel on the whole, I was promised a dark story about a brooding antihero who, in the words of the teaser "can almost taste the rage as he stalks her killer and waits." because of the constant POV hopping, maybe a third of the novel, if that, is spent delivering on that promise.
Even the segments that do focus on Thorn don't really fulfil that. The characters talk a lot about what a dark brooding loner Thorn is, but he doesn't come off that way. He doesn't do much brooding, no more than anybody else would after finding out their mother-figure had been raped and killed, he's not much of a loner, having a small but not insubstantial social network, and describing him as "stalking [his mother figure's] killer" is being a little generous. Of the four people responsible for his mother's death, he is only directly involved in the killing of one, and even then, he fails to actually do the job himself, needing his girlfriend to do the job for him. One last note on the ugly side of the book, there's a graphic and needless rape scene in the novel that serves no purpose other than to establish our main villain as totally depraved, which we already knew. Later on he forces a couple of women to strip naked and jump out of boat for no reason at all, which just felt like and excuse to describe some T&A for the book.
December 23, 2024
Published in 1987 and set in the Florida Keys, this novel introduces a series character named Thorn. Thorn lives in a ramshackle house on Key West and makes something of a living by tying flies for fishermen. His life has been dominated by twin catastrophic events, the first of which was the death of his natural parents at the hands of a drunk driver. The second came when nineteen-year-old Thorn sought to take revenge for their deaths.
Fifteen years later, Thorn is still struggling with the fallout from these events, but he's falling in love with a woman who works as a public defender and he's hoping that his life is about to take a positive turn. But then his adopted mother, a dedicated environmentalist, is brutally murdered and Thorn will not rest until he has seen her killers brought to justce.
For those who read the works of John D. MacDonald and Carl Hiassen, this will seem like very familiar territory. Hall's evocation of the locale is probably the strength of the book, which shares the same environmental concerns of MacDonald and Hiaasen and which has a cast of offbeat characters very reminiscient of those in Hiaasen's books. In the end, though, I had a couple of problems with the book.
The first was that it didn't seem very fresh; it was as though I had heard this story before. My second and more important concern was that the serious nature of the crimes committed in this book seemed out of synch with the screwy, oddball behavior of many of the characters, Thorn in particular. I felt that the climax of the story was completely over the top and totally unbelievable.
Finally, there is a coincidence at work in the basic plot of the book that seemed too much of a stretch. I won't give it away for fear of spoiling it for other readers, but I can't imagine that others will not notice it.
Three stars for me--enough to make me want to read the second book in the series to see how it develops, but not enough to make me rave about it.
James L. Thane
www.jameslthane.com
Fifteen years later, Thorn is still struggling with the fallout from these events, but he's falling in love with a woman who works as a public defender and he's hoping that his life is about to take a positive turn. But then his adopted mother, a dedicated environmentalist, is brutally murdered and Thorn will not rest until he has seen her killers brought to justce.
For those who read the works of John D. MacDonald and Carl Hiassen, this will seem like very familiar territory. Hall's evocation of the locale is probably the strength of the book, which shares the same environmental concerns of MacDonald and Hiaasen and which has a cast of offbeat characters very reminiscient of those in Hiaasen's books. In the end, though, I had a couple of problems with the book.
The first was that it didn't seem very fresh; it was as though I had heard this story before. My second and more important concern was that the serious nature of the crimes committed in this book seemed out of synch with the screwy, oddball behavior of many of the characters, Thorn in particular. I felt that the climax of the story was completely over the top and totally unbelievable.
Finally, there is a coincidence at work in the basic plot of the book that seemed too much of a stretch. I won't give it away for fear of spoiling it for other readers, but I can't imagine that others will not notice it.
Three stars for me--enough to make me want to read the second book in the series to see how it develops, but not enough to make me rave about it.
James L. Thane
www.jameslthane.com
January 10, 2022
"Under Cover of Daylight" is a bit of a mess yet surprisingly readable.
Thorn is an anti-social type, he ekes out a living making fishing flies, and has a history that includes the murder of the man who killed his parents.
His girlfriend, unbeknownst to him, is the daughter of that man and she ain't the forgiving type.
His adoptive mother is brutally raped and killed - was it to do with the marijuana she was smuggling, or could it have something to do with her opposition to a major local development?
One of the killers is barking mad, a wannabe actor whose grip on reality is slim at best.
It's better than the sum of its parts and occasionally gripping but I found it a bit of a slog to finish. However, it showed a lot of potential and I'll read more in the series to see if James W. Hall managed to pare it down and concentrate on the basics.
2.5 Stars, raised to 3 Stars.
Thorn is an anti-social type, he ekes out a living making fishing flies, and has a history that includes the murder of the man who killed his parents.
His girlfriend, unbeknownst to him, is the daughter of that man and she ain't the forgiving type.
His adoptive mother is brutally raped and killed - was it to do with the marijuana she was smuggling, or could it have something to do with her opposition to a major local development?
One of the killers is barking mad, a wannabe actor whose grip on reality is slim at best.
It's better than the sum of its parts and occasionally gripping but I found it a bit of a slog to finish. However, it showed a lot of potential and I'll read more in the series to see if James W. Hall managed to pare it down and concentrate on the basics.
2.5 Stars, raised to 3 Stars.
April 16, 2020
nope, dumb and dumber. Carl Hiaassen (did i spell that right) would be proud.
Over the top story, although a bit believable with a valid point of view, over the top characters, over the top action, over the top relationships, over the top idiotic and insane wrapping up of the 'plot' this is it.
And I enjoyed it immensely. yes, I understand all the one and two star ratings, no Pulitzer prize headed this way, no Hilary Mantel skills, but it was great fun, a wonderful diversion, perhaps coronavirus isolation has changed my intellect, but I think I'll go sign up for book two...
Need a light-hearted, illogical, silly diversion from what's going on in this world, this is it.
Over the top story, although a bit believable with a valid point of view, over the top characters, over the top action, over the top relationships, over the top idiotic and insane wrapping up of the 'plot' this is it.
And I enjoyed it immensely. yes, I understand all the one and two star ratings, no Pulitzer prize headed this way, no Hilary Mantel skills, but it was great fun, a wonderful diversion, perhaps coronavirus isolation has changed my intellect, but I think I'll go sign up for book two...
Need a light-hearted, illogical, silly diversion from what's going on in this world, this is it.
September 6, 2020
Thorn’s past includes a savage act of revenge on the drunken hit-and-run killer of his parents. Now, fifteen years later, Thorn still cannot escape that moment, or the darkness he took into his soul that night. Not even his best friend, Sugarman, knows the truth. Not even Sarah Ryan knows the depths of her lover’s pain. Then suddenly, the nightmare begins again as Thorn’s foster mother is found slaughtered. Thorn can almost taste the rage as he stalks her killer and waits. "An exciting, well-crafted first novel that smoothly places complex, believable characters into an action-filled plot."
December 20, 2020
Where to start
The story starts out fairly well, but there were times I wondered what in the world was going on. The writing style was hard to follow, for me. It did get better about the last 3rd of the book. I wanted to like it, but it was terribly edited and at times, just didn’t make much sense. I know some book series get better. I’m tempted to give the 2nd book in the series a try, but it’s always so disappointing to waste time on a so-so book when there are better ones out there waiting for me. It wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t great.
The story starts out fairly well, but there were times I wondered what in the world was going on. The writing style was hard to follow, for me. It did get better about the last 3rd of the book. I wanted to like it, but it was terribly edited and at times, just didn’t make much sense. I know some book series get better. I’m tempted to give the 2nd book in the series a try, but it’s always so disappointing to waste time on a so-so book when there are better ones out there waiting for me. It wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t great.
February 19, 2022
very solid
(3). I am glad to say that reading these books in order is not required. I read the second Thorn book a while ago and didn’t even know about this one until I received an Amazon Prime freebie alert. Once again, we have a deeply flawed, very engaging protagonist. And, seemingly, almost all the other major characters in this story are equally flawed, as well as very engaging. It makes for a rip roaring story of passion, greed, some aggressive sex and lots of action. A couple of good twists and turns as well. Not world class literature but…..Good stuff.
(3). I am glad to say that reading these books in order is not required. I read the second Thorn book a while ago and didn’t even know about this one until I received an Amazon Prime freebie alert. Once again, we have a deeply flawed, very engaging protagonist. And, seemingly, almost all the other major characters in this story are equally flawed, as well as very engaging. It makes for a rip roaring story of passion, greed, some aggressive sex and lots of action. A couple of good twists and turns as well. Not world class literature but…..Good stuff.
May 3, 2023
Not the most believable plot, or characters. Good fiction is, at least, realistic! Far too much profanity - but, notably, none of it directed at anything Muslim!
I also, again, make the complaint that these authors write "series". They do not! They write "serials". The difference is that in a "series", each episode/volume, while it uses the same characters and setting, is complete in itself. If I am left hanging at the end of a book, and am obliged to purchase the next one in the alleged "series" then the person is writing a "serial"!
I also, again, make the complaint that these authors write "series". They do not! They write "serials". The difference is that in a "series", each episode/volume, while it uses the same characters and setting, is complete in itself. If I am left hanging at the end of a book, and am obliged to purchase the next one in the alleged "series" then the person is writing a "serial"!
July 26, 2023
This book was written in 1986/7 and it did not age well at all. It would have been strange even for the time it was written. This book needed some heavy editing, it's a mess in a lot of places. Location and time changes happen within the same paragraph from one sentence to another without any segway and it's confusing. There are random bits about fishing and fish tackle info dumps thrown in higgledy-piggledy at odd points. Also, no one in this book really works despite being under 30.
The main 'hero' and 'heroine' leave a lot to be desired and I found myself constantly annoyed with them. All the other characters are actually caricatures, just bits and pieces of things without any depth or emotion they are just there, and they do things that make other things happen and the plot moves on but there is no sense of emersion or emotion into what is going on. Stuff just happens but what do we care? It would have made a great film ala early Bond, very over the top, tongue in cheek to be made fun of with (but with no real laughs to be had) zero realism, but alas as a story... this book leaves a lot to be desired.
However at some point, I read a book quite a bit further along in this series and I must have enjoyed it since I gave it 3 stars (I have no memory of it or what it was about at all), so maybe the author gets better as he goes.
The main 'hero' and 'heroine' leave a lot to be desired and I found myself constantly annoyed with them. All the other characters are actually caricatures, just bits and pieces of things without any depth or emotion they are just there, and they do things that make other things happen and the plot moves on but there is no sense of emersion or emotion into what is going on. Stuff just happens but what do we care? It would have made a great film ala early Bond, very over the top, tongue in cheek to be made fun of with (but with no real laughs to be had) zero realism, but alas as a story... this book leaves a lot to be desired.
However at some point, I read a book quite a bit further along in this series and I must have enjoyed it since I gave it 3 stars (I have no memory of it or what it was about at all), so maybe the author gets better as he goes.
February 19, 2022
Tight story, deep characters , interwoven with local color
A fast-paced and original tale with great detail and emotion. It was perhaps more of an adventure story such as my husband enjoys, but it caught my interest and kept me reading. A complex mystery set in the Florida Keys. The scenes were so well described that I could even smell what was in the air. Highly recommend the book and applaud the author. You will be glad you bought the book.
A fast-paced and original tale with great detail and emotion. It was perhaps more of an adventure story such as my husband enjoys, but it caught my interest and kept me reading. A complex mystery set in the Florida Keys. The scenes were so well described that I could even smell what was in the air. Highly recommend the book and applaud the author. You will be glad you bought the book.
February 17, 2019
Thorn is falling in love and it is with the daughter of a man who ran his parents off the road where they drowned and that is just the beginning of the story. His foster mother is killed, his house is trashed, a friend is blown up in Thorn's car, and Sarah is involved in smuggling. The impetus for all these tragic events is the result of greed and "land development" forces.
February 28, 2021
Having read John D. McDonald and Randy Wayne White, I was looking for another Florida series. Had James W. Hall recommended to me, and picked this book as it was first in the series. It was okay, didn't find it particularly special. Apparently, the author is a poet, and this may be his first foray into crime novels genre. I'll probably search out book two and give him another shot.
May 28, 2023
I found myself disappointed with this book. It seems to be in the vein of the tortured police officer/detective/private eye who's dealing with a private trauma and he has trouble keeping relationships. I also didn't care for the writing style which seems choppy to me. Maybe the 2nd book in the series will be better?
July 30, 2017
No.
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((Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ( Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kknjnuhc njh gghnbf. Hhfji jjggvnk hhd x inure hjgffvbnjinkigf I am not going to break the 93fe the Samsung Galaxy the Expresses AOL Jack Johnson County. 2 cups of the 5th. We will be able to make sure that
December 6, 2019
Hall writes a lot like Hiassen, another South Florida writer. Very absurdist, nearly cartoon-y characters. Fun as hell to read. But Hall is darker and more violent. Still fun to read, but not many characters you would care to meet in real life.
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