Blackwater Sound (Hardcover)

'Terrific . . . If you don't know the fine suspense novels of James Hall, this will get you off to a rousing start' SCOTT TUROW 'James Hall, the king of Florida noir, delivers across the board with Blackwater Sound. Chock-full of vivid characters, startlingly explosive moments of ultra-violence and seamlessly elegiac prose' DENNIS LEHANE 'Hall has always blazed a unique path through the killing fields of crime fiction. Blackwater Sound is another original and his best yet. With beautiful prose and a heavily muscled story, it moves with the grandeur and unpredictability of a hooked marlin' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'A gorgeous and compelling novel about the merciless predators both in and above the waters of south Florida; it is all the better in that it offers the return of James Hall's masterwork, the marvellous Thorn. No writer working today uses language as elegantly as Hall' ROBERT CRAIS 'Hall's descriptions of the Florida Keys, his detailed knowledge of the sea, his fascinating characters and his obvious love of the natural world make this a wonderful reading experience' JAMES LEE BURKE

A recurrent theme with James Hall's recalcitrant detective Thorn has been his steadfast spurning of Florida society, but in this novel Thorn is in the thick of it, and when he encounters beguiling police photographer Alexandra Rafferty sparks begin to fly, along with the customary violent action. As with the finest writers in the genre, Hall is well aware that it's essential to paint your locale as vividly as you can - and Florida is richly detailed here, in all its gaudy, chaotic and blackly comic splendour. The central plot involves Alexandra Rafferty's father, who is beginning to suffer from something like senile dementia. And as Rafferty Sr is the grandfather of two of the more sinister characters in the novel, Thorn is (as usual) quickly up to his armpits in trouble. Hall's novels have always thrived on coincidences: the number of times Thorn stumble over corpses could give even Philip Marlowe pause for thought, but who cares? The villainy here takes in the usual corruption themes, but stirs in some elements that seem to belong to the science fiction field - but delivered with such aplomb that we feel no shifting of gears. Thorn is always a reliable protagonist, but the wining stroke here is bad girl Morgan Braswell, in thrall to a vanished incestuous passion from the past; she's a strongly detailed character, more persuasive than her psychotic brother, who is cut from a more familiar cloth. The violence is dispatched with the panache we expect from Hall, and while this may not be the author at his most incisive (you have to go to Rough Draft for that), it's still a heady and flavoursome mix. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

‘James Hall really pulls it all together in Blackwater Sound. If violence can be poetic, Hall has the lyric voice for it. Truly haunting.’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.