Thorn

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..."Haunting... page-turning... [Hall] delivers  the eerie sexuality, matter-of-fact absurdity,  bizarre characters and convoluted plot that have  become his signatures" -- The Miami  Herald.

"An engrossing, spellbinding, and  a truly different work; a thriller with the real  thrills!" -- Nelson Demille.

"A  pounding action thriller!" -- The  New York Times Book Review.

"Rich atmosphere, wild in action and peppered with  colorful characters, hall nails you to each page  until the suspense-laden climax." -- Clive  Cussler.James Hall, a former art critic of the Guardian, was awarded the first Bernard Denvir Prize for an outstanding young critic. He is the author of 20 novels, 14 of which feature Thorn, the off-the-grid loner who lives a primitive existence in Key Largo, Florida. Thorn and his friend Sugarman, an African-American PI, team up to solve exotic crimes from animal smuggling to piracy to kidnapping to espionage. Hall has won the Edgar Award and the Shamus and several of his novels have been optioned for film.