Rating: 
Summary: From start to finish, hold on.
Review: James W. Hall just keeps getting better and better. He has such a talent for imparting wit and sensativity to his characters and settings and Body Language is no exception. I live in the NW Florida Panhandle and he paints such a vivid picture with his words that I think I got sunburned sitting on the couch reading it. I could taste the food at Bud and Allie's and feel sand between my toes walking down the idealic streets of SeaSide to the Gulf. From the first page to the last I never wanted to put it down and it left me "champing at the bit" for more. I hope he's busy on his next book, because I'm ready and waiting. He remains one of my very favorite authors and this is a good example as to why.
Rating:
Summary: Top-notch new book signals a different direction for Hall.
Review: Last night, I finished James W. Hall's latest novel, _Body Language_, which is something of a departure for him. Hall has an ongoing series featuring the character Thorn, a generally easygoing type, who spends his days tying sought-after flies for fishermen and is often dragged into all manner of violent and complicated situations involving an assortment of his old friends and lovers. The Thorn books are great and highly recommended. In _Body Language_, Hall introduces a new character, Alexandra Collins, who is a photo technician with the Miami police department, spending her nightly shifts photographing murder scenes and apparently paying penance for a violent incident in her own past (which opens the book, by the way, so it's not much of a spoiler). This same incident appears to be coming back to haunt her, in the form of a series of rape- murders being committed by the "Bloody Rapist." Most writers would be happy with this as the complete plot for a novel, but Hall only uses this as a starting point, adding a whole variety of other criminal activity into the mix. The whole is at times gruesome, but then the mood will quickly change to black comedy or to a very moving, emotional moment. Sure, there are some rough edges, particularly noticeable during the book's conclusion, but the whole is so well-written and comes off as a sort of mixture of Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard's Florida-based crime stories. Without my really realizing it, Hall has snuck in and become one of the few authors whose work I will snap up without reservation. The last Thorn novel, _Red Sky at Night_, made my ten-best list for 1998, and I would place _Body Language_ in my early forecast for best books of this year. For anyone who enjoys Carl Hiaasen or the work of Randy Wayne White, James W. Hall is another name in the pantheon of Florida-based crime writers to be added to your list.
Rating: 
Summary: Memorable Characters
Review: Miami-based Alexandra Rafferty's been on the run for eighteen years because she killed the neighbor boy who raped her and her father helped cover up the crime. These horrific events when she was eleven have overshadowed her entire childhood. A police crime scene photographer, she's kept the world at bay with karate, "the art of deflecting human touch," but feelings can't stay submerged forever. Her marriage to a thuggish ex- jock is dying and her father's Alzheimer's is dragging her down. Everything blows up when her husband, a Brinks truck driver and true crime buff, plans a heist. Readers will be intrigued to see the sparkling town in "The Truman Show"--Seaside, Florida--play a major role in the novel, but Hall's attempt at an Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiassen mix of crime and comedy doesn't always work. Still, Body Language is a well-written thriller, and Alexandra and her father make a surprisingly appealing pair. ...
Rating:
Summary: Memorable Characters
Review: Miami-based Alexandra Rafferty's been on the run for eighteen years because she killed the neighbor boy who raped her and her father helped cover up the crime. These horrific events when she was eleven have overshadowed her entire childhood. A police crime scene photographer, she's kept the world at bay with karate, "the art of deflecting human touch," but feelings can't stay submerged forever. Her marriage to a thuggish ex- jock is dying and her father's Alzheimer's is dragging her down. Everything blows up when her husband, a Brinks truck driver and true crime buff, plans a heist. Readers will be intrigued to see the sparkling town in "The Truman Show"--Seaside, Florida--play a major role in the novel, but Hall's attempt at an Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiassen mix of crime and comedy doesn't always work. Still, Body Language is a well-written thriller, and Alexandra and her father make a surprisingly appealing pair. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to par
Review: Read Under Cover of Daylight, Buzz Cut or Mean High Tide if you want a good book by this author. This one has some great possibilities, but it just doesn't quite live up to those. Situations were too contrived and obvious. Check it out of the library and you will get your money's worth. :-)
Rating:
Summary: Not up to par
Review: Read Under Cover of Daylight, Buzz Cut or Mean High Tide if you want a good book by this author. This one has some great possibilities, but it just doesn't quite live up to those. Situations were too contrived and obvious. Check it out of the library and you will get your money's worth. :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Description
Review: Spend some time in a dark room with a killer... When Alexandra Rafferty was a girl, something unspeakable cruel happened to her on a summer afternoon. Only her father knew about it-or so she thought. Now a forensic photographer for the Miami P.D., Alexandra remains haunted by that horrible day, and it colors all of her relationships. Stan, her emotionally estranged and loutish husband, drives a Brinks armored car and has his own mind-bending agenda. Her now-aging, not-altogether-there father is growing more dependent and less dependable. And her work photographing crime scenes has become a life-consuming obsession. Now Alexandra is about to get caught up in a gruesome series of rape-murders that seem to speak to her long-hidden past. But before she can understand the killer's message, her life spins out of control, sending her on the run-from her husband, from the crooks after him, from a surprisingly persistent boyfriend, and from a killer who's bent on making sure Alexandra won't live long enough to translate his words.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreadful ....
Review: The author states he is giving his previous principal character a rest. That is understandable, however disappointing. But that is no excuse for this combination of overworked plot(serial killing, early rape, police technique,etc.) Florida locations and characters, and descriptions of passion barely worthy of Harlequin. Every now and then a brilliant description, phrasing, or emotion comes by -- but not so often as to lift the piece to Hall's standards. Fortunately, borrowed from the library -- and no personal funds wasted.
Rating:
Summary: Edge of the Seat
Review: This book was riveting. You never knew what to expect around the next corner. The auther constantly kept you guessing and wondering how much more tragedy was necessary in this poor woman's life. I could never imagine the culprit as it turned out.
Rating:
Summary: Edge of the Seat
Review: This book was riveting. You never knew what to expect around the next corner. The auther constantly kept you guessing and wondering how much more tragedy was necessary in this poor woman's life. I could never imagine the culprit as it turned out.
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