Buzz Cut [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

James Hall (Author), Will Patton (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1996

Critics have called James W. Hall's previous  bestsellers  "electrifying,""innovative,"and "brilliantly suspenseful." Now Hall  brings us his most haunting and relentlessly  gripping novel yet--a work that proves why the  San Francisco Chronicle has hailed him  as one of the nation's "finest and most  literate of thriller writers."

A  Florida cruise ship under siege provides the  spellbinding backdrop for Hall's latest novel. On  board, a mad terrorist is threatening to blow up the  ship--and a large part of the Florida coastline as  well. The madman, an unforgettable character with  a high-tech stun gun and a strange fascination  with word etymologies, illustrates why James Ellroy  calls Hall's villains "so well drawn and  amusing they make you giddy."  

Also on board is Thorn, the enigmatic, hard-bitten  hero last seen in Gone Wild, who, along with his  friend, Sugerman, must stop the bomber before he  redesigns the Southeastern United States. As the  novel races toward its explosive conclusion, Hall  sets the scene for a nerve-shattering  showdown--between the brutal and cunning terrorist and Thorn,  who reveals a deeper, darker, more unpredictable  side to his personality in this electrifying new  novel.

A thriller filled with the  author's signatures--vise-tightening suspense, steamy  sexuality, hypnotic prose, and off-beat  humor--Buzz Cut exposes the dark  underbelly and colorful chaos of James W. Hall's native  Florida, as it lays bare the tremendous talents of an  American master writing at the peak of his  storytelling powers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thorn, a loner and gloomy sort of guy, is the hero of James W. Hall's thriller series. But in Buzz Cut, the real center of attention is Butler Jack, an erudite homicidal maniac with a brilliant and grandiose scheme. The plan is to hijack a $400 million cruise ship and hold its 2,000 passengers for ransom. Butler Jack has an obsession with etymology, and he is more than happy to lecture his hostages on the derivation of the word "hijack," which is descended from "Jack" which comes from the Middle English "Jakke," which meant "ordinary guy." Our Jack is an ordinary guy who just happens to have the mind of a genius and a passion for grisly killing. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

A poet as well as a thriller writer, Hall (Gone Wild, etc.) brings an ear for language and an eye for the evocative detail, for the surge of meaning within sound and surface, to his latest?which features his customary hero, the moody, middle-aged Thorn. Reuniting with Thorn here is his old friend Sugarman (last seen in Mean High Tide). Bizarre family dysfunction and impending ecological disaster prove familiar but still effective Hall motifs as Sugar signs on as head of security for a billion-dollar Miami-based cruise ship line and Thorn encounters an unusually chilling adversary. Sugar's task is to catch a chimerical murderer whose victims all have some relationship to the company's gambling flagship, the M.S. Eclipse, from which the criminal has been stealing $50,000 per month. Danger promptly surfaces, as Sugar is nearly killed by the psychopathic Butler Jack, who has stun-gun electrodes attached to his fingertips and who plans to hold the Eclipse and its passengers hostage for a king's ransom. Jack also has designs on Monica Sampson, the long-missing daughter of the cruise line's owner, but Thorn, who winds up aboard the ship along with Sugar, casts eyes toward this young beauty as well. Murder, techno-wizardry and plenty of sexual tension ignite into spectacular action as Jack sets the ship on a collision course toward an oil-laden supertanker off Miami's South Beach. The title is right on; this thriller will slice readers' sleep into slivers.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553477234
• ISBN-13: 978-0553477238
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,612,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thorn Steps Out, February 10, 2002

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buzz Cut (Paperback)

Broody loner Thorn (Travis McGee with attitude) is inveigled into taking a cruise when best pal Sugarman takes an almost fatal jolt of electricity while heading up security for the Fiesta Cruise Lines. Thorn on a cruise is about as likely as Jay Leno entering a monastery.

"Buzz Cut" is loaded with fascinating, but highly unlikely characters. Monica, angry runaway daughter of cruise line owner, Morton Hanson, is full of angst and bitterness. Why? Because she is stunningly beautiful and has been raised in luxurious plenty. Yes, really. She is trying to make an identity for herself as a maid in a seedy motel. The monster creating all the trouble is Butler Jack, a brilliant, truly scary guy with a love of etymology (the origin of words). He doesn't just expire people; he treats them to an hour-long lecture on interesting words. He is bent on ruining the Fiesta Cruise Line and its owners. He commandeers the ship and its communication and navigational systems, terrorizing the more than 2000 passengers.

This is a fine, lively read, and I think Mr. Hall had a good time writing it. It is over the top in a wry and humorous way. The characters are interesting and sharply defined. Mr. Hall develops them beautifully, but does seem to lose interest and then neglect them. Thorn does not play a major role in the book. It is a well-done ensemble piece. The author has a fascination with unlikely technology, but it's all in good fun.

Die-hard Thorn fans might object to the lightening of the mood, and the lack of philosophizing, but they can rest easy. Thorn is barely tempted by the crass commercialism and is properly grumpy at his enforced socialization. A fast, highly enjoyable read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cruise Away From Boredom, August 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Buzz Cut (Paperback)

Okay, so its extremely unlikely that a single family could contrive to be so dysfunctional and high-profile to make this plot a reality, but thats not quite the point of this book. James W Hall has again come up with some high-caliber entertainment that keeps us turning pages to discover the next little plot twist.

Sugarman and Thorn are now middle aged boyhood friends whove never quite escaped the insulation provided by the Florida Keys. Sugarmans the laid back private detective and Thorns the fly-tying hero whos even more laid back lifestyle affords him a greater perspective on their weeks cruise with the family from hell.

Full of keen detail about the cruise ship and its workings, Buzz Cut is an entertaining and thrilling romp through the waters of the southeast coast. The dialogue is healthy and sharp and the characters, for the most part, far enough away from stereotypes to be interesting. This is not a classic and Hall himself has done much better, but it is definitely a worthwhile read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite as good as earlier books in the Thorn series, May 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Buzz Cut (Paperback)

James W. Hall has created a unique character in his protagonist Thorn, the "hero" of a number of books. Not quite a detective, Thorn nevertheless has a talent for landing in the thick of trouble, often while attempting to help out his friends. This was the basic conceit in Hall's previously Thorn title, _Gone Wild_, and he uses it again in his latest novel, _Buzz Cut_. This time, Thorn is motivated to help out his best friend, Sugarman, whose been hired as the head of security for a cruise ship line and has stumbled onto the track of a sociopathic misfit bent on defrauding the company, in order to send money to a growing collection of starving children in Third World countries. While the book is just as fast-paced and full of twists and turns as any in this continually-growing series (Hall's next book, _Red Sky at Night_, continues Thorn's adventures), _Buzz Cut_ isn't as strong a book as previous titles, wherein Hall was able to incorporate legitimate ecological and environmental concerns (_Mean High Tide_ and _Gone Wild_). Here, his satirical eye alights on such easy targets as the Donald Trump-like owner of the cruiseline and his talk-show host wife. An entertaining novel, but not Hall at his best. And is it just me or is the plot of this book virtually identical to that of the movie _Speed 2_?