1964, Miami Beach Convention Center.  Brash and lightning quick, Cassius Marcellus Clay is fighting for the heavyweight championship of the world against Sonny Liston.  In the audience a fifteen year old kid rises to his feet and shoots a photograph of the two boxers. 

In the background of that black and white photo, barely visible behind the clashing fighters, are four men and one woman sitting a few rows from the ring.  A couple of them are chatting, others watching the fight.  On the surface nothing seems to sets them apart except that they were caught sitting shoulder to shoulder in that random explosion of a flashbulb.

Four decades later when a copy of this old image appears on the wall of a Miami art gallery, a violent chain reaction begins to unfold.  It becomes brutally clear that someone will go to any length to make this photograph disappear.

Enter Thorn.  He’s left his isolated home in Key Largo for a week in Miami to help his lover Alexandra Collins care for her aging father Lawton.  Within hours of his arrival in the city, a copy of the photo falls into his hands and immediately he, Lawton and Alexandra are targeted for murder.  Scrambling to save the ones he loves, Thorn comes to realize his only hope is to find a way to decode the photograph. 

Who are these five people sitting ringside?  What bond did they share?  What riddles are hidden in that grainy image?  In 1964 Miami was a small town, but even then it was a place of intrigue, full of boisterous and cocky characters.  A town where secret agents, Mafia bosses, Cuban exile militiamen and the political elite mingled freely.

Peeling back layer after layer of long held secrets from that bygone era, Thorn and Alexandra Collins explore corners of South Florida that few ever see, from its seamy underbelly to its glittering halls of power.  Gradually Thorn uncovers a complex web of family treachery, personal vendettas and a political conspiracy that reaches into the highest levels of the US government. 

But his discovery will come at an unbearable cost.  A loss beyond any he’s known. 

In previous thrillers, I’ve set the action against the backdrop of the unique charm of the Florida Keys.  Now, in Magic City, I focus on the town I love, my home for over thirty years.  And I’ve given Thorn, the character I’ve been developing for two decades, his most complex and fearsome challenge yet.

Copyright 2007 James W. Hall  |  Website by Net Gain Consulting