Thorn Mystery Series by James W. Hall

James W. Hall’s haunting debut novel first introduced the rugged character Thorn and the breathtaking South Florida landscape where he lives. Thorn’s past includes a savage act of revenge on the drunken hit-and-run killer of his parents. Now, fifteen years later, Thorn still cannot escape that moment, or the darkness he took into his soul that night. Not even his best friend, Sugarman, knows the truth. Not even Sarah Ryan knows the depths of her lover’s pain... moreJames W. Hall’s haunting debut novel first introduced the rugged character Thorn and the breathtaking South Florida landscape where he lives. Thorn’s past includes a savage act of revenge on the drunken hit-and-run killer of his parents. Now, fifteen years later, Thorn still cannot escape that moment, or the darkness he took into his soul that night. Not even his best friend, Sugarman, knows the truth. Not even Sarah Ryan knows the depths of her lover’s pain. Then suddenly, the nightmare begins again as Thorn’s foster mother is found slaughtered. Thorn can almost taste the rage as he stalks her killer and waits. less

A brutal hijacker, a missing heiress, and a luxury liner racing toward disaster...In the quiet shallows of the Florida Keys, Thorn has made a home, tying fishing flies and trying to forget the violence of his past. Now Key Largo is his world. He fishes it, breathes it, makes love in it. Until a phone call from Miami changes everything plunging Thorn into the deep waters of madness and revenge... In Miami, Thorn's best friend, Sugarman, is fighting for his life... moreA brutal hijacker, a missing heiress, and a luxury liner racing toward disaster...In the quiet shallows of the Florida Keys, Thorn has made a home, tying fishing flies and trying to forget the violence of his past. Now Key Largo is his world. He fishes it, breathes it, makes love in it. Until a phone call from Miami changes everything plunging Thorn into the deep waters of madness and revenge... In Miami, Thorn's best friend, Sugarman, is fighting for his life. While working security for a luxury liner plagued by theft, Sugarman was attacked by a man with a knife in one hand and 400,000 volts of electricity in the other. And when the M.S. Eclipse sets sail for the Caribbean, both Thorn and Sugarman are swept into a voyage of terror...where a madman hijacks the Eclipse, killing off crew members one by one...where the cruise line owner's missing daughter reappears, igniting the killer's passions--and Thorn's battered heart...where hundreds of lives hang in the balance, as only Thorn stands between a madman's rage and the ultimate carnage at sea... less

Master of suspense James W. Hall's "Hell's Bay "sends Thorn deep into the wilds of South Florida, in a story with all the haunting atmosphere of "Deliverance" and the sheer terror of "Cape Fear."Descended from pioneer stock, the Bateses are an aristocratic Floridian family with vast holdings in real estate and mining... moreMaster of suspense James W. Hall's "Hell's Bay "sends Thorn deep into the wilds of South Florida, in a story with all the haunting atmosphere of "Deliverance" and the sheer terror of "Cape Fear."Descended from pioneer stock, the Bateses are an aristocratic Floridian family with vast holdings in real estate and mining. When matriarch Abigail Bates is discovered drowned in the Peace River, a chain of events is set into motion, embroiling Thorn with a family he never knew he had and a fortune he doesn't necessarily want.Thorn is leading a fishing expedition into the isolated lakes and mangrove swamps of Hell's Bay when Abigail's son and beautiful granddaughter arrive, claiming Thorn as a long-lost relative and asking him to solve the woman's murder. Little do they know that the killer is already on their trail. Soon their houseboat becomes a precarious island of safety in a landscape of escalating violence. What does the killer want? And why is their predator so enraged, determined to kill them all no matter what the cost? As Marilyn Stasio said in "The New York Times," "If violence can be poetic, Hall has the lyric voice for it." In this tour de force of fear and suspense, Hall shows how one family's dark past comes back to haunt its most remote member---and may ultimately cost him his life. less

When a mysterious teenage girl appears at his door, Thorn’s attempt to help her sends him on a journey that leads to a shocking discovery: every calamity in Thorn’s life for the past twenty years—and there’ve been plenty—has been engineered by a powerful enemy. This man known as Trickster has made it his mission to torment Thorn and those around him in deadly ways. But now that sadistic game is about to come to its ultimate conclusion.