Hell's Bay (Thorn Mysteries)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 320 pages
• Published by: St. Martin's Minotaur February 5, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0312359586
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312359584
• Book Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
Edgar-winner Hall (Magic City) puts a Southern gothic twist on his latest Florida thriller to feature his iconic hero, Key Largo beach bum Thorn. While helping old flame Rusty set up a houseboat deep in the Everglades as a fishing spot for tourists, Thorn becomes entangled in the intrigue surrounding the murder of Abigail Bates, a wealthy land and mine owner. Soon after, one of Rusty's first customers, John Milligan, confronts Thorn and claims to be Thorn's uncle, making him face old family secrets possibly connected to Bates's murder. Thorn's detective friend, Sugarman, at Thorn's request, starts making possibly dangerous inquiries into the crime. The appeal of this multilayered novel lies in the authenticity of its evocation of the Everglades, along with a slow-burning plot that kicks into high gear when Thorn and Rusty's guests, cut off from the outside world by sabotage, are hunted by Bates's killers. The result is another compulsive page-turner from a master of suspense. Author tour. (Feb.)
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Product Review


“A masterful writer.”---James Patterson

 

“No writer working today…more clearly evokes the shadows and loss that hide within the human heart.”---Robert Crais

 

“The king of the Florida-gothic noir.”---Dennis Lehane

 

“Delivers taut and muscular stories about a place where evil always lurks beneath the surface.” ---Michael Connelly

 

“I believe no one has written more lyrically of the Gulf Stream since Ernest Hemingway.” ---James Lee Burke

Reader Reviews
James W. Hall writes gritty outdoor adventure novels, usually set in Florida near or on the water. Hell's Bay is more of the same, and marks the return of hard-bitten hero Thorn, who signs on to be first mate aboard the first voyage of former lover and female fishing guide Rusty Stabler's new houseboat. The houseboat will act as a base for daily forays deep into virgin fishing grounds. The first surprise comes when the client, whose name is Milligan, addresses Thorn by his full name, Daniel Oliver Thorn. Nobody knows his name. He's a Conch, and he has only one name; Thorn. Naturally, there are forces at work he does not understand, and soon he will play a major part in a game that began long before he agreed to make the trip with Rusty. A game that began with the question, "How long can you hold your breath?" and ended with the drowning death of one Abigail Bates, 85, principal shareholder and owner of Bates International, a huge multinational conglomerate. Thorn is a careful man. He sends his detective friend Sugarman to investigate the activities of Bates International, but Abigail Bate's killer, a woman named Sasha, has already learned that the Milligans, who are next in line to succeed at Bates international, have chartered a houseboat to go fishing on Hell's Bay. Sasha blames Bates for her husband's death from lung cancer, and her teenage son, just accepted to Yale with a full scholarship, is about to die from the same disease. They have a motto: head of the snake. They know what needs to happen next, and they are prepared and more than capable of making it happen. When Sugarman learns Bates International mines Gypsum and piles the radioactive residue in eighty million ton, twenty-story stacks 300 acres at their base, and that an elementary school with an astonishingly high student mortality rate not only borders a nearby stack but has been built with cinder blocks made from the waste, he is able to identify the killer and learn that she has already left to attack the charter fishing party. But will he be able to warn Thorn in time? Deep in the Everglades, beyond the reach of cell phones, Thorn has learned something too: he is Abigail Bate's nephew, and she has left a controlling interest in Bates International to him. "How long can you hold your breath?" Sasha asks her next victim during the long, dark, disastrous night that follows, and the story accelerates from there to its slam bang conclusion. Recommended for lovers of outdoor adventure. Art Tirrell is the author of 2007 adventure novel, "The Secret Ever Keeps" - set on and under Lake Ontario. "Simply put...the best underwater scenes I've ever read." Meg W - reviewer