Press
Praise for James W Hall
Thorn Novels Reviews
Under Cover of Daylight
“This book is a beauty… The plot, the action, the marvelous sense of place, are enough to keep anyone reading.” — Elmore Leonard
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
“Hall… makes place and climate as important as character in building the powerful effect of this accomplished novel… Hall’s characters, people of heart and soul with real-life combinations of strengths and flaws, are so sharply evoked as to be almost physically present…” — Publisher’s Weekly
An intense thriller filled with both danger and emotional depth., this is the first novel 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
Tropical Freeze
“A terrific read with a gritty and tangible sense of place, a hero who’s a cross between Davy Crockett and Philip Marlowe, and a lyrical, almost poetic touch in scenes both sexual and violent.” — Orlando Sentinel
“James W. Hall’s lyrical passion for the Florida keys, his spare language and unusual images haunt us long after the story has faded.” — New York Times Book Review
“Menacing . . . brilliantly written!” — USA Today
“Provocative and suspenseful . . . a worthy and brilliant successor to Under Cover of Daylight.“ —Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger
“Explosive . . . suspenseful . . . action galore.” — Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Mean High Tide
“COMPELLING.” — The Washington Post
“An electrifying tale of good and evil… Hall is one of the finest and most literate of thriller writers.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“NOT TO BE MISSED! James Hall started fast and gets better and better” — Tony HIllerman
“Steamy…” — Los Angeles Times
“The latest in a string of wonderfully written thrillers… It establishes him as one of the best in the business.” — The Washington Times
“Hall is one of the top genre practitioners—a writer who stretches the literary conceits of the form… A MUST READ.” — Chicago Tribune
“Mean High Tide is Hall at his best and that’s very good indeed.” — The Denver Post
Gone Wild
“Hall’s fans may be surprised to find that Thorn plays second fiddle here to Allison, but they won’t be disappointed with this charismatically courageous woman or her adventures.
“With its far-flung locales and unexpected heroine, this is Hall’s most ambitious novel yet, a work of considerable moral depth distinguished by rich characterizations, live-wire prose and bolts of offbeat humor.” —Publishers Weekly
“Hall integrates a minicourse on the plight of orangutans into his crime story, vividly dramatizing the animals’ human-caused travails in an effective subplot following the fate of one ape captured in Borneo and smuggled into Florida to be sold as a pet. Attempts to deliver messages on a variety of social and environmental issues have ruined many a crime novel, but Hall mixes his ingredients flawlessly…” — Bill Ott, Booklist
Buzz Cut
“Jim Hall is one of the best thriller writers of our time.” — James Crumley
“Fast becoming the defining series for modern Florida crime fiction…Hall is [an] absolutely brilliant writer…There simply isn’t anybody out there who does it better.” — I Love A Mystery
“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.” — Publishers Weekly
“James Hall’s novels about a gloomy Florida loner named Thorn are fine, dark reads.” — Amazon.com Review
Red Sky at Night
“You’ll flip pages nervously, scanning ahead quickly… As always, reading Hall is a pleasure. Especially when you don’t know who will be left standing at the end.”
— The Miami Herald
“James Hall is a master of suspense.”
— The New York Times
“[A] first-rate thriller. . . Hall is at his electrifying best.” — People
“The kind of book you couldn’t put down if you tried!” — The Washington Times
“It’s time to get James W. Hall on your radar.” — Sacramento Bee
Blackwater Sound
2003 Shamus Award Winner — Best Private Eye Novel
“A story that bristles with all the heat and tension of a tropical Florida summer, Blackwater Sound is destined to rank among the greatest suspense thrillers of the new decade.” — Jane Adams
“No one has written more lyrically of the Gulfstream since Ernest Hemingway… a wonderful reading experience…” — James Lee Burke
“sleek and relentlessly propulsive…” —Dennis Lehane
“No writer working today…more clearly evokes the shadows and loss that hide within the human heart.” — Robert Crais, bestselling author of L.A. Requiem and Demolition Angel
“If you don’t know the fine suspense novels of James W. Hall, this will get you off to a rousing start.” — Scott Turow, bestselling author of Presumed Innocent and The Burden of Proof
“With beautiful prose and a heavily muscled story, it moves with the grandeur and unpredictability of a [killer] marlin.” — Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author of A Darkness More Than Night and Angels Flight
Off the Chart
“Wonderfully disturbing… the well crafted, darkly resonant Off the Chart stays with you.” — Miami Herald
“A tasty mix of rip-roaring adventure, caustic social commentary and lyrical appreciation of the beauty that still exists in Florida…. Lovers of Florida’s waterways will delight in James Hall’s Thorn novels.” — Washington Post
“Thorn must come to terms with his volatile nature if he is to right his ship, and… does so by trusting his ‘blinding resolve to go forward, driven by some secret long-ago animal nodule in his brain.’ It’s those animal nodules, in the brains of Thorn and the always-fascinating villains he pursues, that drive the action in Hall’s high-energy series, but there is much more than action here. Hall forces us to consider the striking similarity between his hero and his villains, nodules firing on the same cylinders. Yes, we like to imagine ourselves wearing Thorn’s deck shoes, in a full-frontal assault on all those who endanger our world, but Hall, unlike most thriller writers, portrays the collateral damage wreaked when rugged individualists go into overdrive. This remains one of the best series in the genre.” — Bill Ott
Magic City
Hell’s Bay
“If violence can be poetic, Hall has the lyric voice for it.” — Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times
“The appeal of this multilayered novel lies in the authenticity of its evocation of the Everglades… The result is another compulsive page-turner from a master of suspense.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“A thoroughly indulgent and hardy stew of a thirller.” — Miami Herald
Silencer
“A masterful writer.” —James Patterson
“A master of suspense. . . . James Hall’s prose runs clean and fast as Gulf Stream Waters.” —New York Times Book Review
“No writer working today . . . more clearly evokes the shadows and loss that hide within the human heart.” —Robert Crais
Dead Last
“James W. Hall will scare your Florida tan white in two heartbeats, yet leave your admiration intact.” — Thomas McGuane
“Dead Last is a mystery with multiple layers, with Thorn pursuing a ruthless and clever killer as well as diving into his own past — two paths that will have a shocking convergence.” — St. Petersburg Times
“Thorn, that Key Largo loner whose renegade style always gets results, has written another page-turner, this time with a surprising twist…” —Valerie Ryan, Shelf Awareness
“Hall combines crisp prose, solid psychology, sardonic humor, and glimpses of an edgy, fast-changing Florida into a suspenseful and satisfying whole.” — Publishers Weekly on Dead Last
Going Dark
“With his unerring sense of place, and a frighteningly sure grasp of the dark side, nobody cooks it up like Hall.” — Miami Herald
“Hall’s latest novel, titled Going Dark proves he’s one of the best genre writers working today.” —Alan Cheuse, All Things Considered“
Among the best [of Florida writers] is James W. Hall… As the story spins forward, Hall builds the suspense and violence to what could literally be a breaking point for South Florida. Along the way, he treats the reader to gorgeous prose about the state’s natural bounty, advances his development of Thorn, supplies multiple shocks and proves that not all of Florida’s reptiles slither on their bellies.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
“As ever, Hall is in colorful command of his South Florida setting… Compared to other mystery writers, he plays things refreshingly low key, but he’s always in control, thriving on the setup as much as the payoff …with its nicely observed characters and lively dialogue—and terrific sex scenes—it keeps readers turning the pages.” —Kirkus
“Hall is one of those rare thriller writers who can build character as he ratchets tension, who can do no-holds-barred action scenes with panache and, in the midst of bedlam, never lose sight of nuance. All those skills are on display here, as Hall assembles a full-bodied supporting cast whose stories hold our interest as much as Thorn’s attempt to save his son without helping to bring about a South Florida version of Chernobyl. A fine thriller on every level.” —Booklist
The Big Finish
“A tough-minded tale of love, violence and duplicity… Thorn may remind you of John D. MacDonald’s immortal Travis McGee — Hall gladly admits his debt to the McGee books — or perhaps Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, because Thorn also lives off the grid, unburdened by credit cards or a driver’s license. Old enough to harbor doubts and regrets, he clings to a code that keeps propelling him into harm’s way… [Hall’s] vision takes in both the beauty and the horror of his chosen turf, the dangerous Southern landscape that McGee once trod. He’s a strong and welcome voice.” ―Washington Post
“Like all of Hall’s work, his latest thriller boasts a page-turner of a plot, fully realized characters and lyrical prose. But the biggest lure of his fiction is his examination of moral issues, not only in black and white but also in numerous shades of gray. Clever and cinematic, The Big Finish explores, entertains and educates.” ―Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Hall keeps the tension mounting as motives and alliances shift with the foul-scented wind. Even as violence looms, Hall’s talent for description adds a balancing, poetical note.” ―Publishers Weekly
“Keeps the tension mounting.” – Publishers Weekly
Bad Axe
“…a hold-your-breath (in more ways than one) finale that will make you glad Thorn is back.” — Tampa Bay Times
“No writer working today uses language as elegantly as Hall, or more clearly evokes the shadows and loss that hide within the human heart.“ – Robert Crais
“James Hall is a writer I have learned from over the years. His people and places have more brush strokes than a van Gogh. He delivers taut and muscular stories about a place where evil always lurks below the surface.” — Michael Connelly
”An expert creator of grotesque villains and fast action, former poet Hall raises the crossbar with his sensitive insights into the human condition.” – Publishers Weekly
“James Hall’s writing is astringent, penetrating, and unfailingly gripping long after you read the last page…The story and the characters crackle like lingering currents of electricity in your mind.” — Dean Koontz
Reviews of Harper McDaniel Books
When They Come For You
Harper McDaniel, the heroine of this thrilling series launch from Edgar winner Hall (The Big Finish and eleven other Thorn novels), has recently lost her celebrity photographer mother to suicide, but she takes comfort in her loving husband, Ross, an investigative reporter for the Miami News, and their baby son, Leo, with whom she lives in Coconut Grove, Florida. Then one evening Harper returns home from a charity event to find cops and firefighters outside the remains of her house, which has been destroyed by fire. Inside she finds Ross and Leo, who have both been shot dead. Assisted by her brother, Nick, a resettlement specialist for the World Bank, and her gangster grandfather, she sets off to track down the killer. Her quest leads her to Africa, Switzerland, and Spain, where she pieces together a mosaic of crimes linked to the deaths of scores of innocent people. A woman of action, Harper fights her own battles, takes her own risks, and sets her own traps. This intricately plotted novel delivers a protagonist to root for and villains worthy of the name. — Publishers Weekly
When You Can't Stop
“Like beer from the bottom of a bait well, Hall’s books pssssst and bubble as soon as you open them.” Los Angeles Times
“…polished writing we hope for and get only from our finest novelists.”
George Garrett
Reviews of Other Fiction
Bones of Coral
“Wry plotting and robust writing, winsome heroes and outrageous villains: another first-rate spin by Hall” — Kirkus Review
“James W. Hall can scare one to death, but he’s always in control of his story, which is laid out in rather sharp, and often beautiful, prose.” —Los Angeles Times
Hard Aground
“A masterful page-turner.” — Miami Herald.
“Buried treasure, sexual kinks, family secrets, real-estate swindles…a complex intrigue.” — The Boston Globe
“Highly original and entertaining.” — Elmore Leonard
Body Language
“A first rate thriller by a masterful writer.” — James Patterson
“Hall shows himself to be an ingenious plotter…In Alex he has created a character to care about.”— People
“Body Language is James Hall showing off all his best stuff. Complex and edgy, engrossing and masterful. This book’s a cut above the rest. It’s his very best.”— Michael Connelly
Rough Draft
“James Hall’s writing is astringent, penetrating, and unfailingly gripping long after you read the last page.” — Dean Koontz
“Hall is a master at duping the reader into believing something that inevitably proves to be jaw-droppingly false. A surprising book that should be on all public library shelves.” — Library Journal
“An expert creator of grotesque villains and fast action, former poet Hall raises the crossbar with his sensitive insights into the human condition.” — Publishers Weekly
Forests of the Night
Reviews of Non Fiction
Praise
“…The resulting collection is flawless… Highly recommended.” — Library Journal
“He’s probably not the spokesperson the South Florida tourism council had in mind, but his new collection of 40 brisk, witty essays proves that poet and crime novelist James W. Hall (Blackwater Sound) is one of the region’s biggest and most thoughtful boosters.” — Publishers Weekly
“‘Letter to My Father’ beautifully blends Hall’s poetic sensibilities with a discussion of what can remain unsaid between men.” — Pam Kingsbury
Praise
“Passionately and thoroughly entertaining… Hall examines 12 of the most successful novels of the 20th century and ‘reverse-engineer[s]’ them, mining their separate defining qualities and their comparative appeal to readers… Referential and cleverly elucidated, the book raises many good points about the precise methodology of bestselling novels.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Fascinating. Every would-be writer, and every knowledgeable reader, should read this book. It brings a valid understanding to publishing phenomena that seemingly were unexplainable. With this book, you see the forest and the trees.”
— Michael Connelly
“I learned more about fashioning a bestseller from Hit Lit than from any other book, or any experience, I’ve encountered in my thirty-five years as an editor and publisher. Even established and successful authors need this guide.”
— Otto Penzler
Hall’s Complete Works
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