Rating: 
Summary: MIAMI MAYHEM
Review: This is my first Hall book, and obviously the first in a new series featuring the unflappable Alexandra Rafferty, a crime scene photographer with a dark secret from her childhood. A neighborhood boy raped her; she went to threaten him with her cop father's gun, and accidentally shoots the boy dead. Dad helps cover up the crime, and no one suspects the truth, or do they?
Flash up to the present day and Alexandra finds herself involved in a serial rapist killer's horrifying carnage. Add to this a truly psychotic husband who is planning a major armored car heist, and two thieves who are like something out of a David Lynch movie, and you have the many ingredients of this strange, but mesmerizing, crime novel. If things weren't bad enough, Alex's father is now senile, suffering from Alzheimer's, and getting her in more trouble than she could ever dream possible.Hall goes out on a limb in his treatment of the father's character. The overwhelming tragedy of Alzheimer's should never be milked for comic relief, but Hall does this quite often, seguing sometimes very uncomfortably from serious repercussions of the disease to the inherent "comical" side effects. The book has a nice pace and Hall certainly demonstrates a feel for his locales. (...) It's fairly obvious who (the rapist) is, (...) so obvious, you almost want to laugh at his attempt. The characters of Norman, Emma and Jennifer are so over the top, they never achieve one moment of lucidity or credibility. Emma and her pet cockroach; Norman in his Quasimodo shroud; and dimwit Jennifer, the epitome of the dumb blonde provide some comic relief, but they are so sinister and unlikeable, you can only welcome their inimitable demises. Perhaps Hall tried to hard to give us a complex novel that he forgot his audience's suspension of belief levels.
Rating: 
Summary: Body Language
Review: Though he assembles a plot with a lot of possibilites, James Hall's downfall in Body language comes in the area of character development. Put simply, the author tries too hard in creating these characters, all of whom are indescribably complex. There is no way to get a handle on anybody. If he would have backed off a little bit, the characters would have become more believable. The finale was solid, but maybe because I was so glad to get there.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Finale, Poor Prelude
Review: Though he assembles a plot with a lot of possibilites, James Hall's downfall in Body language comes in the area of character development. Put simply, the author tries too hard in creating these characters, all of whom are indescribably complex. There is no way to get a handle on anybody. If he would have backed off a little bit, the characters would have become more believable. The finale was solid, but maybe because I was so glad to get there.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book James W. Hall has written!!!!
Review: When I heard that James Hall had written another book, I was all set to read another adventure of the Key Largo Beach Bum, Thorn. I must admit I was a little disappointed when I learned that Thorn would not be appearring in Body Language, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the book! Think you got problems? Consider Alexandra Rafferty, Crime Photographer for the Miami Police Department. She was sexually assaulted at age 11. Her husband is not only having an affair, but he's also planning an armoured car heist. Her best friend is on the hit list of every anti-Castro Cuban organization in Miami. Her live-in Dad is sufferring from severe memory lapses due to Alzheimers Disease. She's on the run from a pair of gun-toting Whack-O's, one who's built like a Rhino and the other keeps a cochroach as a pet. With all that on her mind how can she possibly help the police to capture a serial rapist? James Hall spins a suspense filled tale that takes the readers from the seedy back streets of Miami to the white sandy shores of the Florida Panhandle. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat up to the final paragraph! If you've never read anything by James W. Hall, Body Language is a great place to start!
Rating:
Summary: He Just Gets Better and Better
Review: When it comes to character, plot, setting, relationships and pacing there are few living novelists who deliver the complete package the way James W. Hall does. The good news for his devoted fans as well as new readers is that Body Language just might be the best book he's written. The main character, Alexandra Rafferty, is a smart, obsessed and rather lonely woman who is haunted by events from her past as well as a series of crimes that seem to be related to her current life. She's a wonderful character in the center of a plot that's arguably the author's most gripping and certainly his most mysterious. Hall is constantly compared to his Florida brethren: Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen and Laurence Shames, who are all talented, but none approach his depth, beautiful language or emotional intensity. Body Language is a novel that reminds you that some of the very best contemporary writing and storytelling is being commited in the name of crime.
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