Rating: 
Summary: Coming soon, perhaps, to a theater near you
Review: Matthew Hall's second novel recalls-probably deliberately-"The Silence of the Lambs," and, like the Thomas Harris book, "The Art of Breaking Glass" should make it to the screen pretty much intact. This one has two star-making roles: There's Bill Kaiser, a mad genius out to wreak justice on the world-or at least Manhattan-by using unconventional, violent, high-tech methods. He's perversely fun to watch, quite like "Silence"'s Hannibal Lecter. "'I repair things, keep them even," he says. "I connect the circuits that otherwise don't get connected. I keep the balance. That's my work.'" Then, in the Clarice Starling role, there's Sharon Blautner, a nurse who meets Kaiser in the Psych ER at Bellevue. An unwilling accomplice, she loses her job when Kaiser escapes and ends up in the middle of the vigilante's well-orchestrated crusade. His goal: to stop a campaign to tear down a mostly abandoned community center in lower Manhattan and erect a for-profit jail. The main target is the corporate mogul putting the company's plan into effect-a man who, coincidentally, who drove Sharon's father, a onetime business partner, to suicide-and Sharon finds herself torn between what's right and what's just, as the book heads toward a cataclysmic conclusion.Hall's writing rarely gets in the way of his steam-train storyline-though he occasionally indulges a tendency to preach about the broader societal issues involved in Kaiser's mission-and he drops in some lovely phrases and passages (a band's music is "like hearing electricity breathe"). Bill is deadly serious but maintains a healthy sense of irony, which lightens the story's mayhem and vengeance; you can only hope that when "The Art of Breaking Glass" makes it to a theater near you, the film entertains as much as the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Stellar debut, up there withThomas Harris and Stephan Hunter
Review: Thank you, thank you and thank you. For mystery fans who are deluged by mediocre fare and cookie-cutter plots, Hall gives us brilliant read. Full of unpredictable and chilling plot twists, fully developed characters in a story that moves along like a freight-train. More authurs should look up the word "thriller" in the dictionary. Hall gives thrills, but what is really unique these days is that it's so well written. Fans of Thomas Harris and Steven Hunter now have another writer to add to their "must read" list. Thank you Mr. Hall for putting the thrill back in "thriller." Philip Alexander, NY, NY
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Book!!!
Review: The best Thriller I've read in Ages!!! Matthew Hall is a fantastic writer, and I can't wait until he writes another book!!!
Rating:
Summary: Suspensful and dramatic; brilliant plot skillfully written.
Review: The bomb planted in Senator Redweld's computer in the first scene of this story isn't the only explosion waiting to happen in this suspensful and
dramatic thriller. Bill Kaiser, the sinister and brilliant hero/anti-hero of this novel, is himself nitroglycerin with a mission. In Kaiser, Hall has created a mastermind madman worth rooting for. You may not approve of his methods -- or you may -- but in either case you'll cheer his tenacity as much as his temerity, his mental quickness as much as his physical endurance, his cause much as his caper.
Kaiser is someone in whom I found much to admire. His love and knowledge of obscure New York City architectural gems, his facility at planning and
carrying out his plot, his tenderness provoked initially by Sharon's belief in him and later by her sadness and disappointment in him, and his complete conviction that ultimately he's doing the right thing.
And then there's Sharon. Rebounding from personal tragedy only to become an unwilling key to the story's engrossing pace and finally to its surprising resolution. Played equally cruel by Kaiser, the cops and Edward McKinnon, the story's true villain, we watch Sharon's resolve grow to where the duped smartens to become the leader, calling the shots and marshaling everyone's best talents to take on Kaiser on her terms instead of his or anyone else's.
Aside from being a plot Hollywood should be running to get its hands on, what amazes me about this book is Hall's superb writing. Kaiser's
escapades in, under and on top of buildings could not come across without Hall's own apparent appreciation of architectural realities and their corresponding social hierarchies and his ability to choose words that convey those feelings.
This book will change the way I look at buildings I pass everyday. Kaiser's exciting escape from Bellevue, unwittingly aided by Sharon, will
make readers appreciate the niceties and intricacies of an ordinary elevator shaft in a way I'm sure they never even considered. And the
subplots too are skillfully held together as the main story unfolds. A listener-sponsored radio station and its program manager, East Village
squatters, a van Gogh painting and even the Brooklyn Bridge each play important parts and Hall seamlessly rounds up all these seemingly disparate
pieces and players into a grand motif leading to a splendid and gripping finish that will surprise and entertain.
I very highly recommend The Art of Breaking Glass.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, Thrilling ,edge of seat.can't put down!!!!
Review: The book was hard to put down, from start to finish. This book showed a look into a differant world of the mentaly ill, and how they could vewie the cruel world. I loved the part about the Doctor.And what Happen to him. Sharron could have been a little smarter, But them the book would have not been as good as it was. Is there more on the way. By Hall.
Rating:
Summary: Very awsome!
Review: This was one of the first "real" books that I read. It is a little bit confusing at first, because there are so many characters, but after the first couple of chapters you won't want to put it down! I hope that if you are doubting about buying this book, STOP! This is an awsome book I recommend it to anyone that likes to read! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!
Rating:
Summary: Very awsome!
Review: This was one of the first "real" books that I read. It is a little bit confusing at first, because there are so many characters, but after the first couple of chapters you won't want to put it down! I hope that if you are doubting about buying this book, STOP! This is an awsome book I recommend it to anyone that likes to read! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!
Rating:
Summary: Very awsome!
Review: This was one of the first "real" books that I read. It is a little bit confusing at first, because there are so many characters, but after the first couple of chapters you won't want to put it down! I hope that if you are doubting about buying this book, STOP! This is an awsome book I recommend it to anyone that likes to read! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did!
Rating:
Summary: Masterful with a surprise ending
Review: Urban terrorist fights against urban renewal. Based on the above premise I thought that I had made a mistake in buying this book. Was I wrong! This book roars along at high speed, with unexpected plot twists. I look forward to Mr. Hall's next one.
Rating:
Summary: As beautifully crafted as it is gripping...
Review: When I got this book, I immediately read it twice. Once, within 48 hours, because the suspense was killing me. A second time to relish the writing and characterization. I don't make it through most mysteries even once -- after I've unraveled the plot, the writing often isn't good enough to hold my interest . How rare to find a mystery like this which can tether one to the plot with a strong thread of suspense, yet pleasure one with the deliberate nature and freshness of the writing. What I enjoyed most about the book was the moral complexity of the characters. Too many books have the clearly evil and the clearly good. In my experience we all have a few blemishes to our souls, a few dings in our characters, and an inconsistency or two in our ethics. This book steps out of a world where characters are as flat and two-dimensional as a soap opera heroine, and into a world where people are as intriguing, mystifying, and unpredictable as they really are in life. Here are people who walk hand-in-hand not just with the companions of their days but with the ghosts and demons of their own pasts and with the shadow side of their own natures. We are introduced to Bill, a Robin Hood of sorts, an activist for the rich history and community and thriving life of the urban landscape -- at the same time in which he is psychotic killer, an evil genius, inflicting his peculiar notions of justice on people and property as well. In Bill's case, he has an almost terrifying consistency in his ethics. (I can't tell you to how many people I've read the violence-against-women vengeance sequence in the book, and how many of them copped to having similar fantasies.) Sharon, our heroine, is torn between her own ethics, and those she shares with Bill. She is more effective at solving puzzles than most of the detectives she encounters -- even as she clings to her own mental equilibrium with an at times very tentative hold. Sharon -- along with a third character, Eric -- are engaging as decent people trying to deal compassionately and appropriately with an insane world. It was delightful to find a mystery in which the ethical questions and the characters were as gripping as the plot.
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