Red Sky at Night

Rating:
Summary: No Wimps allowed in Reality, Florida.
Review: "Red Sky At Night" will take you all the way down before letting you have another breath of air. This story is hard to understand if your life has been easy and candy-coated, but should resonate with all those (painful) real world experiences. Consistent and evenly paced, "Red Sky at Night" goes way beyond what others portray. Just be carefull!

Rating:
Summary: No Wimps allowed in Reality, Florida.
Review: "Red Sky At Night" will take you all the way down before letting you have another breath of air. This story is hard to understand if your life has been easy and candy-coated, but should resonate with all those (painful) real world experiences. Consistent and evenly paced, "Red Sky at Night" goes way beyond what others portray. Just be carefull!

Rating:
Summary: eminem
Review: Bears by Online Book Review Justin Botham Courage strength and stamina are just of a few traits of that the characters showed in the book that i read. The book that i read was about a kid, his brother and his dad and the went on a canoe trip up north to Canada. Before they left for Canada they had to pack food that was freeze dyed and and had to pack everything that they would ever need on the whole trip. They packed stuff like orange juice, meat, water, clothes and medical stuff. When they were canoeing they would have to go from portage to portage and when the water ran out they would have to backpack all of there gear to the next lake. One night there was a big storm and a tree fell down and landed on his dads and older brothers legs and this kid had to save his dad and brother in the middle of no where. If you would like to know what happens with this kid and his brother and dad i would suggest that you get the book.

Rating:
Summary: Hall's crystalline prose sparkles again
Review: Each year, I treat myself to Hall's most recent novel, the only fiction author I'm not willing to wait for the paperback to come out. They are a special treat after what can be depressing days at work. Again, Hall has painted a remarkably clear and alive vision of the Florida keys. The very three-dimensional characters come alive on the page. I've always preferred Hall's villains to his heros, though in this book he makes the heros more interesting. Hmm. The quirkiest character, Pepper, is wonderful, but none of the characters here achieve the literary legend status of the villainous lovers Dougie and Elvira in what I consider Hall's best book, "Bones of Coral." OK, I'm ready for his next book!

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasure To Read
Review: Hall's writing style made this book a pleasure to read. Add to that, a terrific plot and characters who seem real enough to jump off the page, and you have a winner. I can hardly wait to catch up with Thorn in the next book.

Rating:
Summary: Last visit to Hall's Key West
Review: I can't help but think that James W. Hall was wronged and wounded way back when and uses that pain to fill the souls of his characters (especially Thorne) with enough angst and weltschmerz to overflow the banks of Lake Okeechobee. This particular adventure was too heavily laden with suspense-impeding character histories. I really didn't care about how the mad doctor lost his legs in Viet Nam and certainly didn't need to know about Pepper's love affair with her father. Further, these extra tidbits come at points in the novel when the reader wants the plot to resolve itself, to keep the pace flowing as fast as the speedboats the characters are chasing each other in, not to slow it down. And as much as Hall's antagonists are fun to hate, relishing each one's well deserved demise as they happen, this time around the gruesome comic book style deaths were too much. This novel reminded me of the martial arts action pictures of the 1970s - ludicrous storyline, loads of gratuitous gore and half-assed existentialism posing as philosophical profundity.

Rating:
Summary: Depressing and morbid
Review: I have been a fan of James W. Hall for quite some time, and of his main character, Thorn. I could not finish this book- the massacre of the dolphins, the sadistic and Nazilike "experiments" on the old men, and Thorn being at the mercy of the evil doctor, a childhood friend of Thorn's. This book was too sick, morbid and sadistic to qualify as your typical escapist thriller, and not well-written enough to qualify as top novel material. Take a pass on this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best book ever
Review: I read maybe 8 mysteries within the course of a year(not counting the works of Lawrence Block). If a book ever gets to point where I can tell what is going to happen next the author is not doing the best job possible.

And the ending was a little weak as well

That's not to say that I didn't like the setup or the characters, some of whom were absolutely hilarious, especially Pepper and her odd fascination with...well peppers.

I made the same mistake I always make I read a book in a series out of order. Have to go back and read the entire series now.


Rating:
Summary: James Hall proves he can still do first-rate work,
Review: James hall is far and away my favorite crime novelist. He's never written a book I have not loved. Even his weakest efforts are superior - his poetic prose and vivid images, his quirky and inspired characters, his odd and exciting plots. This is a step back, to a smaller and more personal setting, in which Thorn, Hall's protagonist, has a reason to be where he is (Unlike Hall's last two novels, _Buzz Cut_ and _Mean High Tide_, in which the connection was just a bit forced). This is a good thing. Thorn is like a force of nature, and is used to best advantage in stories like this, in which he's drug, unwilling, into heroism by his anger and his sense or right and wrong. This novel uses the character's nature to advantage, as did Hall's first two novels. For Hall fans, this should be a hugely satisfying book.

Rating:
Summary: James Hall proves he can still do first-rate work,
Review: James hall is far and away my favorite crime novelist. He's never written a book I have not loved.Even his weakest efforts are superior - his poetic prose and vivid images, his quirky and inspired characters, his odd and exciting plots. This is a step back, to a smaller and more personal setting, in which Thorn, Hall's protagonist, has a reason to be where he is (Unlike Hall's last two novels, _Buzz Cut_ and _Mean High Tide_, in which the connection was just a bit forced). This is a good thing. Thorn is like a force of nature, and is used to best advantage in stories like this, in which he's drug, unwilling, into heroism by his anger and his sense or right and wrong. This novel uses the character's nature to advantage, as did Hall's first two novels. For Hall fans, this should be a hugely satisfying book.