Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another solid Hall thriller, January 13, 2002
This review is from: Blackwater Sound: A Novel (Hardcover)
Blackwater Sound brings together Thorn and Sugarman with police photographer Alex and her father from Body Language. As usual, Hall delivers an excellent thriller with superb pacing, interesting characters and a few explosions here and there. We hate the people that Thorn hates, but still feel the ambivalence for hating someone who deserves it. I was glad to see some more of Sugarman in this book, as he's a chracter who's intrigued me in other books. Bringing in Alex from his other series doesn't feel gimmicky at all -- it's a very natural weaving of two sets of characters that I already knew from having read all of the other Hall books. Starting with Blackwater Sound would deprive a reader of some fuller character understanding from the other books -- but would certainly motivate someone to go back and read all of the other books to learn more about them. Just a good, solid, enjoyable book.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Quiet Man, January 25, 2002
This review is from: Blackwater Sound: A Novel (Hardcover)
Long ago I read a Thorn story and promptly forgot the title. Every time I’d read a mystery with a Florida setting, I thought of Thorn. I’d question mystery experts about a guy who lives on the Keys, a real outsider who doesn’t want any ties and cares not about material things. Recently, I saw a message on the Amazon Discussion Board about “Blackwater Sound,” immediately made the connection, and ordered the book. I was not disappointed. The haunting prologue described young Andy Braswell who, attempting to attach an electronic device on a Moby Dick sized marlin, was dragged and lost at sea. Ten years later, his mother has committed suicide, his father is still obsessed with catching the marlin, and his brother and sister are emotional wrecks. The story proper opens with a horrendous crash of a commercial airliner into Blackwater Sound off Key Largo, FL. Thorn is part of the rescue operation. The crash, the sounds and the aftermath, are skillfully and almost poetically rendered by the author. I thought I had read the ultimate in crash descriptions in Andrew Klavan’s “Hunting Down Amanda,” but Mr. Hall is in a class by himself. The story is well paced and the characterizations are excellent. These are stand-alone type people. After you have read this book, you will surely agree that dysfunctional families are each different unto themselves. The technology is a little weak, but is more than made up for by the stirring battles between man and marlin. Mr. Hall’s expertise is in fishing not gadgets. Recommended.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a Pleasure!!!, December 18, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Blackwater Sound: A Novel (Hardcover)
Thorne is back, which means we all have good reason to rejoice. As much as I loved Hall's previous two books -- "Body Language" and "Rough Draft" -- I was ready to hang with my old buddy Thorne again. Hall is the best of the Florida writers -- in fact, he may just be the best living suspense novelist. And, the great news is that "Blackwater Sound" as as good as anything he's ever written. There plot is both elegant and subtle -- no super-villians or schtick. It's smart stuff all the way through. Enormously entertaining crime fiction that's also fine literature. I'm ready for his next one.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|