James W. Hall Mystery Collection

James W. Hall Books

Tropical Freeze by James W. Hall

The rugged Florida troubleshooter Thorn is back in another high-tension story of crime, love, and revenge, described by the Chicago Tribune as "wry, vivid, wonderful. . . . A first-rate thriller!" In an exotic blue-water locale where greed and criminality thrive, the mysterious disappearance of Thorn's boyhood friend Gaeton Richards, an FBI agent, entangles Thorn in a web of violence and intrigue that takes him from seamy local bars to glittering ocean villas. Then, when Gaeton's beautiful sister becomes Thorn's lover, he finds himself facing a jealous lunatic stalking her, a rogue government agent involved in a murderous scam, and an unforgettable underworld of petty crooks, amoral hired guns, and dangerous losers.

Body Language by James W. Hall

A serial killer is leaving the bodies of young women twisted into strange symbols. Juggling crime photos, Alexandra realizes that the symbols are, in reality, letters of the alphabet, She suddenly finds herself dealing with her chaotic present and coming to terms with her long-buried past in a dangerous roller coaster ride that takes her from the mean streets of Miami to the Florida panhandle--and straight into the hands of a killer.

Bones of Coral by James W. Hall

Like any big-city paramedic, Shaw Chandler had probably seen a thousand suicides. But he knows a murder when he sees one--and this time it's his own father. Suddenly he's got a metal canister marked "U.S. Navy" in his hands, as he's dragged back to the crazed coral shores of his birthplace, sunny Key West, to explain it.
There, two people from Chandler's past--an impassioned doctor harboring his own long-buried secrets and his seductive actress-daughter, Trula--hold the key to a bizarre environmental scam turned deadly. And as the snares of a suspicious trap of "suicides" close about him, Chandler confronts a deranged killer with a negative IQ, a knack for rhyme, and a genius for killing... and the psychotic mastermind behind the southernmost monopoly on death...

Hard Aground by James W. Hall

450 years ago a treasure ship went down. In Miami, the heat hasn't let up yet...Hap Tyler tailboards on Biscayne bay, hears voices, seduces young women, and lives on the edge of history in his family's old-money mansion amid Miami's pastel glitz. But while Hap stumbles around in the shadow of his more successful older brother, Daniel, a tangled web of deception and greed is being spun around him --a web that leads Daniel to his death.
Trying to solve his brother's murder, Hap collides with a 450-year-old secret: the disappearance of $400 million in a sunken Spanish plunder. Daniel's upscale girlfriend is close to digging up the treasure, an avaricious senator has already tasted it, and a stone-cold killer will stop at nothing to bring it home. For Hap a dark and bloody vein of Florida and family history has been opened. And the only way to close it is through a modern ritual of violence and truth.

Under Cover of Daylight by James W. Hall

James W. Hall's haunting debut novel first introduced the rugged character Thorn and the breathtaking South Florida landscape where he lives. 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.

Rough Draft by James W. Hall

Amazon.com
James Hall's series about beach bum Thorne (Mean High Tide, Buzz Cut, Hard Aground) placed him firmly in a Holy Trinity of Floridian crime novelists. Like Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, Hall brought to life Florida's alluring, addictive mix of sand and ocean, hibiscus and alligator, tanned skin and pastel stucco. Rough Draft, however, is less concerned with place than with plot: Miami is a cipher, a generic background for the convoluted whodunit (or perhaps more precisely, who's doing it to whom) Hall weaves around former policewoman and successful crime writer Hannah Keller.

Fiercely protective of her brilliant but haunted 11-year-old son, who five years ago witnessed the murders of his grandparents (presumably by the embezzler his grandfather was pursuing), Hannah becomes an unwitting pawn in an FBI operation to catch Hal Bonner. Bonner is a Cali assassin with a particularly brutal "signature." Since J.J. Fielding escaped with $463 million in drug money, Hal is hot on his trail; if--the FBI assumes--he can be persuaded that Hannah has found Fielding and the cash, he'll emerge from hiding to exact revenge. They lay a series of clues for Hannah to follow, beginning with a gruesomely annotated copy of her first book that seems to be a direct message from her parents' killer. But as the 72 hours allotted to the plan unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that Hannah will not be led by breadcrumbs; she prefers making her own path.

For sheer presence and emotional depth, Hannah may not be on a par with Alexandra Rafferty, the Miami police photographer of Body Language, and the machinations of the FBI agents--mostly an unpleasant bunch who are wound tighter than the proverbial top--may seem so labyrinthine as to verge on the ridiculous. But Hall serves up a delicious pair of villains in Hal and Misty (who is stalking Hannah for her own purposes). The slow-thinking killer and the quick-talking Hooters girl are chillingly vicious and oddly funny; picture a Capra-esque screwball courtship conducted at the Bates Motel.

Buzz Cut by James W. Hall

Amazon.com
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.

Mean High Tide by James W. Hall

Beneath the still blue waters off Key Largo a woman dives into a dazzling array of color. But behind the shimmering schools of fish, somewhere in the shadows of the reef, a death trap awaits. In minutes one life will be expertly, brutally taken, and another plunged into a mean season of fury, obsession, and revenge... His name is Thorn, his world is mangrove islands, open waters, and the ghosts of a too-violent past. Darcy Richards was everything to him. Now, finding her killer is. Wading into a seething mystery, Thorn is catapulted into a nightmare of violence and deception. There lurks a sensual young woman with a hard come-on, an aging former mobster, and a diabolical ex-CIA man. What they all have in common is each other's mad ruthlessness -- and a little red fish that will make some people very rich, and others very dead...

OxfordBooks.com / Oxford, MS

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