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willac's review against another edition
5.0
There's something comforting to me about reading a new book in a familiar series. I thought this was one of the better "Thorn" novels by James W. Hall. The villain is apparent right from the start, oh wait, there are several villains--one is the woman (an ex-miliary soldier) who is stalking our hero and his fishing party, and the other, larger villain is a corporation who is killing, and has killed, more people than the soldier will get rid of in this outing.
The soldier's husband died of lung cancer precipitated by living in proximity to mountains of radioactive phosphate, leavings from mining operations, and her son is dying of the same thing. There are big questions here, of course--is murder ever justified, do motives matter? Well, sure, motives do matter, but in this case quite a few innocent people die in the process.
Thorn is talked into being the "manly man" on a fishing expedition organized by an old lover who wants to start a business of luxury fishing vacations in the Everglades. Their first party is a father and daughter pair and an outdoors writer and her cameraman. Along for the ride is the old lover's mentally disabled brother--a five star chef--and on the outskirts is Thorn's old friend Sugarman, who's trying to figure out what's going on while being distracted by a pretty Black sheriff who knows more than she's telling.
I read "Hell's Bay" in one long Sunday afternoon. The suspense isn't in finding out "whodunit," but in finding out how. A terrific book, one of the best in the series.
The soldier's husband died of lung cancer precipitated by living in proximity to mountains of radioactive phosphate, leavings from mining operations, and her son is dying of the same thing. There are big questions here, of course--is murder ever justified, do motives matter? Well, sure, motives do matter, but in this case quite a few innocent people die in the process.
Thorn is talked into being the "manly man" on a fishing expedition organized by an old lover who wants to start a business of luxury fishing vacations in the Everglades. Their first party is a father and daughter pair and an outdoors writer and her cameraman. Along for the ride is the old lover's mentally disabled brother--a five star chef--and on the outskirts is Thorn's old friend Sugarman, who's trying to figure out what's going on while being distracted by a pretty Black sheriff who knows more than she's telling.
I read "Hell's Bay" in one long Sunday afternoon. The suspense isn't in finding out "whodunit," but in finding out how. A terrific book, one of the best in the series.
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