From Publishers Weekly
Hall (Blackwater Sound; Buzz Cut; etc.) once again sweeps the sand, surf and swamps of Key Largo, in a hyperdramatic mystery featuring sensitive tough-guy Thorn and his live-in girlfriend, Alexandra Rafferty. Hall sums up the plot nicely at the beginning of the book: "Lunacy and violence. Pirates, pirates, pirates." Thorn's long-ago fling with a beautiful woman named Anne Joy comes back to haunt him years later when Anne's brother, Vic Joy, a modern-day pirate along the Gulf Coast, decides he needs to add Thorn's five-acre property to his ill-gotten business and real estate empire. Anne and Vic are the damaged products of a dirt-poor Kentucky upbringing overseen by a smalltime dope-dealing father and a deranged mother with an all-consuming passion for pirates. Thorn refuses to sell to Vic, triggering a complicated coercion scheme that eventually includes the kidnapping of the nine-year-old daughter of Thorn's best friend. The local body count builds until Thorn is in an all-out battle against the deranged Vic, with a complement of U.S. helicopters and a small army of cutthroat international pirates. Hall's crisp writing, plus the ticking-clock suspense of the child-in-peril subplot and amusing secondary characters like Alexandra's dotty dad make this an exhilarating addition to the series.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
James Hall's latest novel might be more aptly titled "Off the Wall." In this modern-day pirate novel, Vic Joy, a wealthy businessman/gangster turned pirate, hijacks pleasure boats and murders their owners. Inexplicably, Vic is also obsessed with his sister, Anne, whom he hasn't seen for years; he does anything to rid her of her boyfriends, including killing them. A tale like this needs a steady reader, and Gary Littman fits the bill. As usual, Littman reads with a no-nonsense style that focuses on the characters without overdramatizing. In fact, Littman's tone keeps the characters from becoming cartoonish, and the book from dragging, as could happen easily with a story this long and bizarre. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
by James W Hall
