Thorn is back with a vengeance in the latest white-knuckle thriller from “Master of suspense” (The New York Times Book Review) James W. Hall
Overview
A year ago Thorn’s son, Flynn Moss, disappeared into the eco-underground, his only contact with Thorn a series of postcards chronicling his exploits. But a postcard arrives unlike the others, a call for help, Thorn jumps into action, setting off for North Carolina. But before Thorn arrives, he’s intercepted by a federal agent who informs him he’s too late—Flynn had been acting as an informant for the FBI, and when his traitorous acts were discovered, he was summarily executed.
The agent proposes a scheme to catch Flynn’s killer using Thorn as bait. Thorn, full of rage, accepts the job if only to get his hands on his son’s killer. The mission takes him to a small town where the gang is holed up, planning an attack on a hog farming operation that has been polluting local rivers and spreading illness through the area.
Little by little Thorn discovers that nothing he’s been told is true, and the trap they’re setting isn’t for Flynn’s killer, but for his partner, a woman who proves more daring and dangerous than any Thorn’s ever met. She’s on her own crusade of vengeance, and she and Thorn make an uneasy alliance. With her help Thorn uncovers a conspiracy that stretches far beyond this small Carolina town.
Praise
“A tough-minded tale of love, violence and duplicity… Thorn may remind you of John D. MacDonald’s immortal Travis McGee — Hall gladly admits his debt to the McGee books — or perhaps Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, because Thorn also lives off the grid, unburdened by credit cards or a driver’s license. Old enough to harbor doubts and regrets, he clings to a code that keeps propelling him into harm’s way… [Hall’s] vision takes in both the beauty and the horror of his chosen turf, the dangerous Southern landscape that McGee once trod. He’s a strong and welcome voice.” ―Washington Post
“Like all of Hall’s work, his latest thriller boasts a page-turner of a plot, fully realized characters and lyrical prose. But the biggest lure of his fiction is his examination of moral issues, not only in black and white but also in numerous shades of gray. Clever and cinematic, The Big Finish explores, entertains and educates.” ―Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Hall keeps the tension mounting as motives and alliances shift with the foul-scented wind. Even as violence looms, Hall’s talent for description adds a balancing, poetical note.” ―Publishers Weekly
Read The Whole Thorn Series
I had the feeling that this could be the last Thorn novel…
I felt I was in danger of repeating myself.
James on Writing The Big Finish
The Big Finish began with the usual question: how do I get Thorn, the reluctant hero, to engage in yet another adventure? Since I ended Going Dark with a scene of Flynn driving away with his friends in the eco underground, I thought it seemed natural to begin the next novel with Flynn’s story after departing from Key Largo. As I assembled a list of likely eco-warrior campaigns that Flynn might be engaged in, one stood out from the rest. It may seem an unlikely challenge to set a thriller in an industrial hog farm operation, but the subject gave me a chance to write (again) about my adopted state of North Carolina, the second largest hog producing state in the country.
Even from the beginning of this novel, I had the feeling that this could be the last Thorn novel. From the very beginning I’ve had an ambivalent relationship with him. He’s an ornery guy who makes a lot of mistakes in his social life and his crime fighting life. He’s not the comic book superhero that seems to populate so many crime novels these days. He’s flawed, fallible and grouchy. And through Thorn’s point of view, I’d been writing about Florida for over thirty years, describing the weather and the landscape and the colorful characters of the state for so long that I felt I was in danger of repeating myself.
So as I began the novel with the thought in mind that this might be the last Thorn story, a mournful tone settled into the prose. I thought Thorn might actually die by the end of the novel. I tried to balance that somber tone with some strange and wacky characters who are overflowing with energy. For me, this was the great challenge and the final reward of the book. A novel that is full of emotion and sadness, but also of courage and commitment.
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We check in with Thorn over at Snappers or Lorelei every once in a while. Maybe he’ll have some new stories to tell us.
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