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Thorn Mystery #5
Buzz Cut
A brutal hijacker,
A missing heiress,
And a luxury liner racing toward disaster...
In the quiet shallows of the Florida Keys, Thorn has made a home, tying fishing flies and trying to forget the violence of his past. Now Key Largo is his world. He fishes it, breathes it, makes love in it. Until a phone call from Miami changes everything plunging Thorn into the deep waters of madness and revenge...
In Miami, Thorn's best friend, Sugarman, is fighting for his life. While working security for a luxury liner plagued by theft, Sugarman was attacked by a man with a knife in one hand and 400,000 volts of electricity in the other. And when the M.S. Eclipse sets sail for the Caribbean, both Thorn and Sugarman are swept into a voyage of terror...where a madman hijacks the Eclipse, killing off crew members one by one...where the cruise line owner's missing daughter reappears, igniting the killer's passions--and Thorn's battered heart...where hundreds of lives hang in the balance, as only Thorn stands between a madman's rage and the ultimate carnage at sea.
Amazon.com Review
James Hall's novels about a gloomy Florida loner named Thorn are fine, dark reads. This one features an ace villain named Butler Jack who takes a giant cruise ship and its 2,000 passengers hostage, and then gives them lectures on history and language while Thorn tries to find a way to rescue them. Under Cover of Daylight, in which we're told about the source of all his angst, was Hall's first Thorn story.
From Booklist
Why does Florida bring out the twisted, surreal side of some of our finest crime writers? Perhaps it's a product of the state's schizophrenia: a sanitized, climate-controlled, theme-park paradise, on the one hand, and an art-deco jungle, on the other hand. In "Native Tongue" (1991), Carl Hiaasen imagined a kind of Armageddon set in a theme park, and now James W. Hall has turned a cruise ship into a floating nightmare. When Thorn, Hall's beach-bum hero perpetually in flight from the vacuousness of the American Dream, finds himself onboard a luxury cruise ship called the "Eclipse", you know the world is somehow off kilter. Intending to help out his pal Sugarman, head of the ship's security force, Thorn soon finds himself up against a techno-psycho intent on steering the "Eclipse" into the path of an oil tanker. With enough gadgetry to please Clancy fans, the gut-level narrative drive of a disaster novel, and the creepiest bad guy since Hannibal Lecter, Hall's latest has "breakout novel" written all over it. Fortunately, the more subtle pleasures of the Thorn series have not been completely obscured by the high-concept plot: there's some intriguingly detailed, Ross McDonaldlike rummaging through the psychological skeletons in a few familial closets; there's plenty of amusing interplay between the reclusive Thorn, who's never seen "Love Boat", and the talk-show-fanatic Sugarman; and, of course, there's a bizarre strain of black humor that's just right for a cruise from Hell. Thorn devotees may be reluctant to share their introverted hero with hordes of techno-thriller fans, but we'd best accept the inevitable: Hall's ship has come in. Bill Ott
From Publishers Weekly
A poet as well as a thriller writer, Hall (Gone Wild, etc.) brings an ear for language and an eye for the evocative detail, for the surge of meaning within sound and surface, to his latest which features his customary hero, the moody, middle-aged Thorn. Reuniting with Thorn here is his old friend Sugarman (last seen in Mean High Tide). Bizarre family dysfunction and impending ecological disaster prove familiar but still effective Hall motifs as Sugar signs on as head of security for a billion-dollar Miami-based cruise ship line and Thorn encounters an unusu
A missing heiress,
And a luxury liner racing toward disaster...
In the quiet shallows of the Florida Keys, Thorn has made a home, tying fishing flies and trying to forget the violence of his past. Now Key Largo is his world. He fishes it, breathes it, makes love in it. Until a phone call from Miami changes everything plunging Thorn into the deep waters of madness and revenge...
In Miami, Thorn's best friend, Sugarman, is fighting for his life. While working security for a luxury liner plagued by theft, Sugarman was attacked by a man with a knife in one hand and 400,000 volts of electricity in the other. And when the M.S. Eclipse sets sail for the Caribbean, both Thorn and Sugarman are swept into a voyage of terror...where a madman hijacks the Eclipse, killing off crew members one by one...where the cruise line owner's missing daughter reappears, igniting the killer's passions--and Thorn's battered heart...where hundreds of lives hang in the balance, as only Thorn stands between a madman's rage and the ultimate carnage at sea.
Amazon.com Review
James Hall's novels about a gloomy Florida loner named Thorn are fine, dark reads. This one features an ace villain named Butler Jack who takes a giant cruise ship and its 2,000 passengers hostage, and then gives them lectures on history and language while Thorn tries to find a way to rescue them. Under Cover of Daylight, in which we're told about the source of all his angst, was Hall's first Thorn story.
From Booklist
Why does Florida bring out the twisted, surreal side of some of our finest crime writers? Perhaps it's a product of the state's schizophrenia: a sanitized, climate-controlled, theme-park paradise, on the one hand, and an art-deco jungle, on the other hand. In "Native Tongue" (1991), Carl Hiaasen imagined a kind of Armageddon set in a theme park, and now James W. Hall has turned a cruise ship into a floating nightmare. When Thorn, Hall's beach-bum hero perpetually in flight from the vacuousness of the American Dream, finds himself onboard a luxury cruise ship called the "Eclipse", you know the world is somehow off kilter. Intending to help out his pal Sugarman, head of the ship's security force, Thorn soon finds himself up against a techno-psycho intent on steering the "Eclipse" into the path of an oil tanker. With enough gadgetry to please Clancy fans, the gut-level narrative drive of a disaster novel, and the creepiest bad guy since Hannibal Lecter, Hall's latest has "breakout novel" written all over it. Fortunately, the more subtle pleasures of the Thorn series have not been completely obscured by the high-concept plot: there's some intriguingly detailed, Ross McDonaldlike rummaging through the psychological skeletons in a few familial closets; there's plenty of amusing interplay between the reclusive Thorn, who's never seen "Love Boat", and the talk-show-fanatic Sugarman; and, of course, there's a bizarre strain of black humor that's just right for a cruise from Hell. Thorn devotees may be reluctant to share their introverted hero with hordes of techno-thriller fans, but we'd best accept the inevitable: Hall's ship has come in. Bill Ott
From Publishers Weekly
A poet as well as a thriller writer, Hall (Gone Wild, etc.) brings an ear for language and an eye for the evocative detail, for the surge of meaning within sound and surface, to his latest which features his customary hero, the moody, middle-aged Thorn. Reuniting with Thorn here is his old friend Sugarman (last seen in Mean High Tide). Bizarre family dysfunction and impending ecological disaster prove familiar but still effective Hall motifs as Sugar signs on as head of security for a billion-dollar Miami-based cruise ship line and Thorn encounters an unusu
436 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1996
498 people are currently reading
454 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 59 reviews
April 17, 2015
First time that I read anything from this author. I found the plot well placed, but the characters a bit weak, not at all convincing. The dialogues are Ok, though. In short, a fast-paced thriller, but a forgettable one too.
March 2, 2019
Thorn is seeing a hippie, and is having a good time with that, but everything else in his life is going bad. His tied flies don't work, his friend stops talking to him, and so forth.
Meanwhile, said friend is working on a cruise ship, where he needs Thorn's help. Thorn eventually gets onboard, and we get a cruise ship mystery.
Not bad, but not as action packed as some of the other novels in the series, I think.
Meanwhile, said friend is working on a cruise ship, where he needs Thorn's help. Thorn eventually gets onboard, and we get a cruise ship mystery.
Not bad, but not as action packed as some of the other novels in the series, I think.
June 6, 2023
I have to say the villains were really evil and the good guys were great. Lot of Sugarman in this thriller alongside Thorn.
March 29, 2014
I finished this book because I couldn't figure out where the plot was going, but finishing didn't help. Who was involved in the scam? Did Butler doublecross Lola? What on Earth was wrong with the lot of them? Can batteries generate enough current to kill?...and on and on...loose ends, ridiculous premises, longwinded philosophical screeds...and on and on!
March 11, 2021
So looking back on my reviews of the previous 2 or 3 books in the Thorn series, it seems I wasn't too crazy about them. For one thing, I prefer my mystery series to be first person, and this one is the omniscient narrator, telling the story from multiple sides, including the perp, so Thorn solving mysteries isn't part of the reason you would read one of these.
So why would you read these? Great action. A central (but not singular) character like Thorn who is kind of broken but kind of cool. Interesting side characters. And a crime with panache.
Well, this book has all that and more! It jumps into the action early and never lets up, as it tells the story of a twisted mind taking control of an ocean liner and Thorn and his lifelong friend Sugar (hired to crack the case) try to figure out what is going on and how to stop it before the liner crashes.
There's plenty of pop psychology, which can be annoying. But the villain in this book isn't as wacky as in previous books. I mean, he's a real psychopath, but his plan isn't as far fetched as in previous books and he seems to have it under control.
So I really enjoyed this one. Glad I already have the next one (Red Sky at Night) already in hand!
So why would you read these? Great action. A central (but not singular) character like Thorn who is kind of broken but kind of cool. Interesting side characters. And a crime with panache.
Well, this book has all that and more! It jumps into the action early and never lets up, as it tells the story of a twisted mind taking control of an ocean liner and Thorn and his lifelong friend Sugar (hired to crack the case) try to figure out what is going on and how to stop it before the liner crashes.
There's plenty of pop psychology, which can be annoying. But the villain in this book isn't as wacky as in previous books. I mean, he's a real psychopath, but his plan isn't as far fetched as in previous books and he seems to have it under control.
So I really enjoyed this one. Glad I already have the next one (Red Sky at Night) already in hand!
March 9, 2025
The great James W Hall! Haven't read one of his in AGES and this is one I've read before, but I always liked the the story, a clever but unstable young man targets a cruise ship for sabotage and sheningans. Thorn gets dragged in when his friend Sugerman gets injured, there's also a (beautiful of course, ah the 80s trope of even less chauvanistic writers to dwell lovingly on the beauty of their female characters even when, as in this case the beauty is a curse, getting close to the idea that it's not her or anyone's looks it's bloody men) runaway heiress, tricked on board by the unstable guy who has an unhealthy fixation on her. Remember Speed 2, the one set on a boat? Pity they didn't give Hall a truck full of cash for the rights to this and used the plot, easily ooomphed up for cinema with some explosions and shootouts. Ah well.
June 2, 2022
I scanned a lot of this one. The villain is into etymology and his long explanations of words became burdensome. Just excessive. The author also went off into narratives to express his own observances about various subjects or into the character's back stories well past the point in the story that made it of any interest. There was just too much disconnect that had nothing to do with the plot (compelling plot!).
June 8, 2022
good fun
(3 1/2). I had read one of the Thorn series prior to this and thought it was decent. His book is much better. A wonderful bad guy, truly nasty, evil and super intelligent really makes this one stand out. Trying to stop him takes up the entire story, with just a few minor diversions. And it works. Thorn and his friend Sugar have their hands full and nothing comes easy. Good stuff.
(3 1/2). I had read one of the Thorn series prior to this and thought it was decent. His book is much better. A wonderful bad guy, truly nasty, evil and super intelligent really makes this one stand out. Trying to stop him takes up the entire story, with just a few minor diversions. And it works. Thorn and his friend Sugar have their hands full and nothing comes easy. Good stuff.
August 9, 2024
I read the previous four novels in the Thorn series and this one is definitely the best. It starts a bit slow, but its worth the wait. The Villain is top-notch. I usually don't like it when authors such as James Lee Burke or even James W. Hall spend too many words on the bad guy, but for this novel it worked. Still Thorn and Sugar are not in it nearly enough. It is a nice thrill ride with several good twists.
May 9, 2017
Okay read. Pretty far fetched. Thorn breaks up with one woman he was living with and jumps right into bed with another. Not my kind of man. This is my first by this author. I won't seek out his other books in the series. This is book #5.
September 15, 2017
Coincidence rains (sic!) on my life: Sept 9, 2017 brought hurricane Irma and
Key Largo into history, and both words imoortant in the beginning of this book! It also yields some real character development along with a wildly braided plot and a wonderful etymological decoration.
Key Largo into history, and both words imoortant in the beginning of this book! It also yields some real character development along with a wildly braided plot and a wonderful etymological decoration.
May 25, 2022
Well thought out and written story with justice done at the end and a happy ending for Thorn and Sugarman with the ladies. Rover will come round and trust him again eventually. Sugarman's family really should work on their relationships though.
September 12, 2022
A messed up family
A tale with a lot of rabbit holes. Wealthy family tree with madness in the branches. Pretty people, Bobby traps, and murder. You'll enjoy reading and trying to figure it out
A tale with a lot of rabbit holes. Wealthy family tree with madness in the branches. Pretty people, Bobby traps, and murder. You'll enjoy reading and trying to figure it out
January 6, 2025
A Little Bit
confusing at times, or I'd have given 5 stars. I was very lost in more than one spot. Sometimes, an author just overdoes it! Too much detail where less said would have been better.
confusing at times, or I'd have given 5 stars. I was very lost in more than one spot. Sometimes, an author just overdoes it! Too much detail where less said would have been better.
June 26, 2017
Sociopaths, cruise liners, television personalities, extortion, corruption, dysfunctional families, what more can you ask for?
Read
April 19, 2021Interesting. Different.
December 17, 2021
Read in 2001. Suspenseful and steamy.
December 21, 2021
Another GREAT addition to the Thorn series. Mystery.
May 30, 2022
Too much profanity
The story was ok but the profanity was awful. I do not recommend this book. God's last name is not damn.
The story was ok but the profanity was awful. I do not recommend this book. God's last name is not damn.
June 3, 2022
This book had an amusing premise, but the execution is deeply flawed. Hall’s writing is too wordy, and his chaotic sentences take away from the book’s potential.
June 3, 2022
Boring
It is really hard to come up with something more than that. Not a single likeable person in the entire book. Nothing more to say!
It is really hard to come up with something more than that. Not a single likeable person in the entire book. Nothing more to say!
June 6, 2022
The story was great but the ending was a little convoluted. The villain was very well written but came on as a little like Frankenstein's monster in the end. The dude just kept coming back.
June 13, 2022
A couple of close shaves!
A good read, not exceptional but definitely I’m worth the read. A great story line that kept my interest until the end. I’m sure Mikey liked it!
A good read, not exceptional but definitely I’m worth the read. A great story line that kept my interest until the end. I’m sure Mikey liked it!
August 2, 2022
Was good
The storyline and the characters kept me guessing and totally hooked. The only thing that I didn't like was reading that the poor dog was abandoned.
The storyline and the characters kept me guessing and totally hooked. The only thing that I didn't like was reading that the poor dog was abandoned.
September 28, 2022
Excruciating
I finished the book (finally) so I didn’t rate it a 1. While the story line was interesting, the book just went on and on and on…..
I finished the book (finally) so I didn’t rate it a 1. While the story line was interesting, the book just went on and on and on…..
November 5, 2022
Another page turner, Thorn is a tough but caring protagonist. Jim Hall can write a thriller, and I'm sure glad he does .......
August 24, 2023
Not very good. I expect more from James Hall.
September 17, 2023
Enjoyable
Enjoyable read, plenty of suspense, action and intrigue to keep your interest. Interesting cast of characters. I would read this author again.
Enjoyable read, plenty of suspense, action and intrigue to keep your interest. Interesting cast of characters. I would read this author again.
February 27, 2018
#5 in the Thorn series. Finalist 1996 Hammett Prize.
Thorn series - Reuniting with Thorn is his old friend Sugarman - Mean High Tide (1994). Sugar signs on as head of security for a billion-dollar Miami-based cruise ship line and Thorn encounters an unusually chilling adversary. Sugar's task is to catch a chimerical murderer whose victims all have some relationship to the company's gambling flagship, the M.S. Eclipse, from which the criminal has been stealing $50,000 per month. Danger promptly surfaces, as Sugar is nearly killed by the psychopathic Butler Jack, who has stun-gun electrodes attached to his fingertips and who plans to hold the Eclipse and its passengers hostage for a king's ransom. Jack also has designs on Monica Sampson, the long-missing daughter of the cruise line's owner, but Thorn, who winds up aboard the ship along with Sugar, casts eyes toward this young beauty as well.
Thorn series - Reuniting with Thorn is his old friend Sugarman - Mean High Tide (1994). Sugar signs on as head of security for a billion-dollar Miami-based cruise ship line and Thorn encounters an unusually chilling adversary. Sugar's task is to catch a chimerical murderer whose victims all have some relationship to the company's gambling flagship, the M.S. Eclipse, from which the criminal has been stealing $50,000 per month. Danger promptly surfaces, as Sugar is nearly killed by the psychopathic Butler Jack, who has stun-gun electrodes attached to his fingertips and who plans to hold the Eclipse and its passengers hostage for a king's ransom. Jack also has designs on Monica Sampson, the long-missing daughter of the cruise line's owner, but Thorn, who winds up aboard the ship along with Sugar, casts eyes toward this young beauty as well.
February 29, 2016
Thorn's best friend, Sugarman, has taken a job as security for the wealthy owner of a cruise ship. Thorn goes to his friend's side when a mad man attacks Sugaman with a knife in one hand and 400,000 volts of electricity in the other. When Thorn reaches Miami, he finds a bizarre mystery of extortion and violence swirling around Morton Sampson, owner of the cruise line. The plot thickens as Morton's wife, Lola, is revealed as the mother of both Sugarman and the killer, Butler Jack. Anyone interested in words will enjoy the quoted dictionary meanings of many of the words Butler Jack has memorized.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews