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EARLY PRAISE FOR HELL'S BAY:

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ¦ DECEMBER 10, 2007
Hell’s Bay
James W. Hall. St. Martin’s, $24.95
(320p) ISBN 978-0-312-35958-4

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.

From Library Journal

Hell's Bay
BYLINE: Thomas L. Kilpatrick
SECTION: REVIEWS; Fiction; Pg. 83

Hall, James W. Hell's Bay. Minotaur: St. Martin's . Feb. 2008. c.320p. ISBN 978-0-312-35958-4 . $24.95. F

The enigmatic Thorn, antihero of nine previous Hall novels (including Magic City and Off the Chart ), finds himself embroiled in treachery that seriously disrupts his solitary life on the Florida Keys. The death of Abigail Bates, matriarch of the Bates family and head of Bates International, a family-owned business that has made billions strip mining phosphate in central Florida, reveals that Throne is a Bates grandson and heir to one-third of Abigail's estate. This answers many nagging questions concerning Thorn's history but introduces greedy family members, a revenge-seeking Iraqi war veteran, and a manipulative corporate lawyer who plots a deadly ambush in the Florida Everglades. Hall has effectively captured the beauty and fragility of the Florida wilderness and the environment-vs.-big-business issues that threaten Florida's embattled ecosystem and parleyed them into a gripping story of adventure and suspense. Despite the testosterone-laden final pages, which stretches credibility as Hall physically and mentally overcomes a near-impossible situation, this will keep readers glued to their armchairs. For popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 10/1/07.]-Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

PRAISE FOR MAGIC CITY:

The Miami Herald
"...the novel further solidifies Hall's mastery of an element that eludes many other contemporary mystery writers..."

Miami Sun Post
"Hall’s sure damn good at telling a badass story."

Category 305
"Magic City is a fast, engrossing read and a lot of fun."

The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
"...'Magic City' evolves in its torrid final pages into a provocative and memorable saga. It's like "Chinatown" with black beans and rice."

From Publishers Weekly
“Fast, entertaining… Hall offers lively characters, livelier dialogue and an excellent depiction of contemporary south Florida.”

Booklist (Starred Review)
“Another outstanding chapter in one of the genre’s most consistently first-rate series.”

Library Journal (Starred Review)
“…a gripping tale of dirty politics, love gone wrong, murder for hire, and international intrigue that is impossible to put down. Highly recommended.”

The New York Sun
"From an opening scene that charges out of the box like a greyhound on amphetamines, to the climactic denouement that will leave the reader as limp as two-month old kale, the pace of "Magic City" never slows."

Baltimore Sun
"Hall's action scenes are starkly poetic..."

Oline Cogdill, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"Hall has delivered the quintessential South Florida novel in Magic City. "

Chauncey Mabe, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"St. Martin's thinks his new Magic City is the author's breakout book."

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