James W. Hall (1) (1947–)

If you've never read a book by James W. Hall, you are missing out on one of the great contemporary mystery writers. His characters are so memorable I expect to see them around town (but, I know, of course, I won't cause I live in Seattle and they are all in Florida). Red Sky at Night is the best of the best. Thorn - the ultimate slacker - spends his days enjoying life and supporting himself tying fishing flies for sale at shops. He's rather good at not tying much more - like not tying up his show more life with lasting complications. His latest lady lives next to a dolphin farm where swimming with the dolphins provides many with restorative healing of their emotional and sometimes physical problems. But, one night someone slaughters all the dolphins. And Thorn's life gets complicated fast. There's not much more of the plot I can share without giving away delicious details. I will say that there is one villain in this book whom you will never forget. The plot itself is so intricate and so captivating that I'm seriously considering re-reading this one again soon which is something I never do. show less

It's been flippin' yonks since I've read a James W Hall - I think it was Off The Charts was the last one. Did they stop publishing him over here for some reason? The reprobates. Was never a finer writer than Mr W Hall, one of the top Jameses of crime fiction - along with the likes of Lee Burke, Ellroy and Crumley - the unholy quartet of murder and mayhem and marvelous prose.

The inimitable Thorn travels from his snug home ground of the Florida Keys to the bustling and jostling devil's show more playground of Miami City to look after his girlfriend's ailing Dad while she's away doing search and rescue training. While Thorn is manfully and self-sufficiently mending the roof, two guys show up looking for a photograph. The two guys are brothers, survivors of a massacre that took place on the night the picture was taken at the Clay - Lister fight in 1964, and the picture reveals certain unpleasant truths to those who know that they're looking at. Thorn being Thorn responds by jumping off the roof and landing on one of the guys. Thus begins a whole lot of murder and fighting and hunting and running around and horribly emotional repercussions that are all the hallmarks of a good Hall.

Fantastic to read, these books are, pure, top-notch literate thriller pleasure. I must have more of these. show less

There's a lot of recapping in the early pages of this one, but after those early bits, the story takes off and lives up to the best books in the Thorn series. With Hall's ever-so-detailed attention to character and action and nature, the book spirals forward in a story that's as heartbreaking as it is timely, and I absolutely loved it. Hall also outdid himself in making a memorable villain, albeit that's one of his hallmarks, and coming back to this story and Thorn was a trip into show more remembering why I fell in love with this series way back when it began.

I loved it. show less

When I think of capital-L Literature, I usually think of what you read in high school and college: tomes or thematically difficult books that I analyzed to death as an English major. So it surprised me to discover in the foreword of Hit Lit, an exploration of bestsellers, that author James W. Hall had his start in academia with a specialization in postmodern literature. When he had this idea to teach bestsellers - and not just your run-of-the-mill gets on the list for a few weeks and then show more drops away, but multimillion copies selling still popular books - he discovered that these books had several things in common.

He focuses on the following twelve titles:
Gone with the Wind
The Godfather
The Dead Zone
Valley of the Dolls
The Hunt for Red October
The Exorcist
Jaws
Peyton Place
To Kill A Mockingbird
Bridges of Madison County
The Firm
The Da Vinci Code

I recommend that you read the books on the list that you intend to before tackling Hit Lit, unless you don't mind massive spoilers. If you haven't read some titles, or don't intend to, the Appendix has an overview of the plot of each. Hall explains why he chose each book, and then goes on to argue what they have in common and what the American public finds so appealing about them, including elements such as the pace and sympathetic charaters. Hall's points are thought-provoking, though his comments about each book did get a little repetitive; since I tended to read it in large chunks, I hadn't had time to forget the last time he mentioned some examples that get repeated when making a different point later. He is tongue-in-cheek at times, but generally is not snobby in his approach and truly seems to have respect for popular reading. An entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking read. show less