Customer Reviews

Forests of the Night

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Forests Of The Night" is built on a weak premise: that Charlotte Monroe has a "sixth sense" about people, particularly criminals. The story is really a mishmash of pseudoscientists trying to harness Charlotte's semi-psychic abilities, a decades old spat between Cherokees and a local family, a dark spot in Charlotte's and the public defender who rescued and then married her. Throw in a psychotic daughter, a son who magically appears, a direct line to the FBI's head and a few other odds and ends and you have it all.

The story is stilted to a large degree, depending on contrivances to move the plot forward. There is never any real suspense, but Hall is still readable.

My suggestion is to put this one on the list for when there's nothing else you really want to read. It isn't bad; it just isn't a page-turner.

Jerry

With Forests of the Night, James Hall takes a break from his series of Thorn novels. This book follows Miami cop Charlotte Monroe, a woman with an exceptional ability to read other people. One day she returns from work to find her husband Parker chatting with a young Cherokee named Jacob Panther. Charlotte quickly identifies him as one of the FBI's most wanted, but before she can do much, he gets away and goes into hiding.

The bombshell of having this man in her house is followed by an even bigger one from Parker: Panther is apparently his son from a teenage romance. Parker, a criminal defense lawyer by trade, refuses to accept Panther's guilt, leading to a major conflict with Charlotte. In the middle is their sixteen year old, schizophrenic daughter who has run away in search of Panther.

Indeed, there is more to Panther's story than is initially presented, and it's all linked to an event that took place back in 1838 and is described in the prologue. (There is one historical error in this prologue, as Andrew Jackson is referred to as president; actually it was Martin Van Buren.) It is Charlotte's role to find out what this link is, even as she acts to get her daughter home.

This is a very good, well-written crime novel, although a little atypical for Hall. In most Hall books, the villain is a rather off-beat character who is warped in a unique way. In this book, the villain is a bit plainer and actually remains faceless through most of the story. Also, although Hall's books are never comic (unlike fellow Florida writer Carl Hiaasen), there usually is a touch of humor that this book doesn't have. That is not to say this book is flawed, but it is just a little different from other Hall books. However, whether you've read Hall or not, this book should not disappoint.

This stand-alone thriller from South Florida series writer James W. Hall weaves an intricate tale of intrigue, from a posh neighborhood in Coral Gables, Florida to a hard-scrabble trailer in the hills of North Carolina. It spans generations of history, from a Cherokee murder in 1838 to current-day vendettas.

Police detective Charlotte Monroe arrives home from a grueling day of tests devised to ascertain her special skills at reading faces and body language, and finds her husband and daughter deep in conversation in the kitchen with a stranger. He looks vaguely familiar, and when she recognizes him as Number Eight on the FBI's most wanted list, she slips into her home office to alert the authorities. While she is on the phone, the man, Jacob Bright Sky Panther, abruptly leaves, and Charlotte soon discovers that her teenaged daughter Gracey has gone missing. The SWAT team is called, the chase is on, and Hall's singular skill at interweaving a dense, complicated plot into a very readable thriller has the reader turning pages.

Gracey, who suffers from schizophrenia, is a particularly interesting character whose separation from family and medications leads her to fantasies in her own delusional world. She is at great risk as her parents frantically try to find her trail. Hall is masterful at letting us into Gracey's Steven Spielberg version of life, which adds pathos and occasional humor to the extreme danger in which she finds herself.

This fast-paced literary thriller fuses historical fact, political intrigue, corruption and family feuds with deep characterizations of a troubled family facing inner terrors of their own. Charlotte's innate ability to read facial expressions could and should lead to a fascinating new series based on her character.

Hall has produced thirteen other novels, several of them featuring a Key West beach bum troubleshooter named Thorn, which have been widely received and critically acclaimed. For fans of South Florida mystery thrillers, James W. Hall is perhaps more literary than some of his famous cohorts, like Laurence Shames, Carl Hiaasen, and Randy Wayne White. FORESTS OF THE NIGHT delivers not only as a thriller but also as a page-turner with smarts.

Discovery of another exceptional mystery writer is always exciting, if costly. James W. Hall has been added to my must-read list.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

Laural Merlington, a veteran of countless audio book performances, is a true pro. She reads with control and distinction, allowing the narrative to carry listeners along.

Forests of the Night will more than carry listeners along - it'll have them on the edges of their seats. Charlotte Monroe is a police woman with amazing gifts - she can read people's faces and body language. She lives in Coral Gable, Florida with her husband, Parker, and their emotionally disturbed teenager, Gracey.

Gracey is so unstable that she runs away from home to be with an outlaw, not just any outlaw but Jacob Panther, a criminal on the FBI's most wanted list. The chase to find Gracey and Panther takes Charlotte to the Great Smoky Mountains and Cherokee land. Little does she know that she's now not only in North Carolina but also smack in the middle of a Cherokee feud that's been going on for over 150 years.

Hall. As always creates complex characters - no stick figures here - and parallel plots. Makes for an absorbing story and good listening.

- Gail Cooke

James W. Hall has set the bar very high for mystery/thrillers coming out this year with "Forests of the Night."

It is sophisticated suspense at the highest level...distinguished writing...powerful prose.

The first rate story line is concise and examines corruption, wantonness and depravity in man. The villains are beyond salvation and vicious in the way they go about their hideous acts. The last time the criminal element was so chilling was in "Dirty White Boys" by Stephen Hunter. These thugs make your skin crawl and sleep with the light on...because you know they truly exist.

The past and present collide...going back 160 years to a deathly pact made between the government and a Cherokee patriot over "The Trail of Tears."

A present day descendent (Jacob Panther) swoops down upon a dedicated Coral Gables cop (Charlotte Monroe), her high profile lawyer husband and their schizophrenic teenaged daughter, altering the lives of all as the startling revelations unfold.

Panther has assassinated a businessman in Miami and when he takes off for North Carolina, the daughter follows and aids his flight.

The Monroes head to North Carolina and are confronted by evil incarnate in the form of a stonewalling sheriff; his father, a corrupt congressman and the congressman's reclusive brother.

Their attempts to locate and rescue their daughter are challenged at every level.

To say anymore would give away too much.

The twists are magnificent and lead to a breath-taking finish.

The villain's identity is divulged with about a hundred pages to go...and that only makes you turn the pages faster.

Thorn is one of those repeating serial characters that keep those of us who have to read and read and read from going insane. In this novel, Hall also brings in a character from one of his other novels, "Body Language," the sexy, svelte, and dangerous Alexandra Rafferty, who is an out-of-practice Karate whiz and full-time police forensic photographer.

Overall, this is a fairly satisfying book. The beginning is VERY powerful, young Andy Braswell is killed, dragged overboard by "Big Mother," a huge Blue Marlin. The circumstances of his death involve an incestuous relationship with his sister, a Romeo and Juliet like tragic death, and a life-long obsession. This is the strongest part of the novel.

The plot centers around a weapon that has been rumored to exist for years, but seems to be a myth. A HERF gun, which can emit a pulse similar to the electromagnetic shock of an atomic blast. An airliner is brought down, and Thorn, who happens to be out breaking up with his old girlfriend (just in time for the new relationship) and catching sea trout, pulls a bunch of survivors out of the water. This brings him in contact with the only other folks out on that water, Morgan and Johnny Braswell, and some guy in a cowboy hat.

What follows, to keep this short, is a complex web of intrigue, fishing, and odd characters. There's Lawton Collins, Alexandra's father, who has lost half his memory, but is still occasionally very sharp, and who idolizes Houdini. There is Johnny Braswell, who believes he's a mobster and carries an assortment of expensive knives and an endless supply of mobster quotes from old movies. There's Johnny's father who has spent over a decade chasing the fish he believes killed his other son, Andy. There's the giant Bahamanian body-building fisherman, son of the legendary "Jelly," and of course, Thorn's old pal Sugarman. If you read this book fast, and ignore plot holes, it's entertaining enough. If you can't ignore things like a US cop appearing in the Bahamas, taking a ride out to a wrecked boat with two Bahamanian cops who take a nap on a rock and have their throats slit --- and then the Bahamanian police never doing more than a quick search for the woman...ever...despite the multiple homicide...well, you have a problem. One of many.

This novel suffers from an all-too-common syndrome in novels with repeating characters. The author seems to have spent a lot of time building the little idiosyncrasies that make the characters memorable and very little on stitching together a plot that makes any kind of sense. I'd give this three out of five stars. I like Thorn, and Sugarman, Alexandra and Lawton, so I'm going to ignore the silliness and implausibility of the plot in favor of good clean entertainment.

James W. Hall is one of the few thriller writers I buy in hardback. He's that good. And this one is no exception. Charlotte Monroe has the ability to read faces, a skill that is described at length in Blink, a wonderful non-fiction book. And this skill gets her in trouble and eventually serves to save a life of someone very close to her.

The thrills are there and the great descriptions of people and places, but it is the creation of Gracey, Charlotte's schizophrenic daughter, that really blew me away. The voices she hears are wonderful, sad, scary, real, and funny as all get out. This is one of those novels that defies categories. Some people, expecting an old-fashioned shoot 'em up thriller, might get bogged down in the extra stuff. But it's the extra stuff, Gracey, and the Cherokee legends, etc. that set this book apart.

It's my favorite book this year.

My first sojourn into the world of James W. Hall was Hard Aground and I liked it so much I found and read all his other books (with the exception of some of the Thorn series, which I like less). The more I read of Forests of the Night, the more I began to think it had been written by someone else...or was an early effort which he dusted off and rewrote, now that he is a bestselling novelist. It began well and the writing, as in all his work, is excellent (as well as a novelist, Hall is a poet and his writing shows the poet's sensibility) but the plot began to wander all over the place and the denouement, when it finally came, was an enormous let down, which I struggled--am still struggling--to make sense of. Lukewarm at best.

There are lots of unanswered questions, too, which are difficult to express without giving away plot--such as it is--secrets. For instance, we are told the fire at the camp was set in order to kill a certain person. But why at that particular time? The targeted person had been around--and surely known about--for quite some time before the fire. Why was murder not attempted earlier? And what was the brave act of the one we learn was known as a Beloved Woman? There are other plot and structural problems, too. Another reviewer has mentioned the poodles, which I also found somewhat silly. But the biggest problem is the confrontation at the end; the entire scene is illogical. Misunderstandings all around, when all one recently rescued character has to do is step forward and tell the authorities what has transpired over the last few hours. But what happens? Dramatic devices which include an unnecessary sacrifice, which I suspect was designed solely to eliminate a character who Hall doesn't know what else to do with.

One thing I've always loved about Hall is his ability to create characters the reader cares about, even--maybe especially--his villains. They are well drawn, fully realized; even when twisted or downright insane, they can evoke understanding and sympathy. Because Hall understands the fragility of the human psyche and explores it in both his villians and his heroes, we become invested in both, almost in equal measure. Sometimes there is a fine line between hero and villain, between whole and damaged, in Hall's novels, and it is this portrayal of the human condition, this vulnerability, that pulls us in, makes us care about the people he creates, good and evil. Hardly any of that exists in Forests of the Night. I found I didn't care much what happened to any of these people. His heroine--all his women--are too tough, his men are too soft, too goofy, or too stupid, the tragic and villainous are somehow unmoving, and he quickly kills off his most interesting creations. He also introduces characters we think will play a major role only to abandon them a chapter later; we never hear another interior thought out of them and they are barely mentioned again. These structural problems, troublesome as they are, could have been fixed in editing; but a greater fault lies in the weak premise of the story itself, which the writing couldn't save.

Only one sentence in the entire book really got to me, reminding me of Hall's other novels in which he demonstrates his great understanding of love and loss: "If all was lost and [he] was never again to see his boy and breathe his breath...."

James W. Hall is a terrific writer; I just hope his next book is better proof than this one of just how terrific he can be.

This was a ho-hum effort from Mr. Hall; a departure from his Keys novels starring Thorn (a Travis McGee take-off). For modern crime novels, the better bet is to go with Dennis Lehane, Thomas Harris, Randy Wayne White (for Florida suspense), and if you are looking for satire, Carl Hiaasen. Hall is a superb wordsmith, sets a scene nicely, however, too often his plots are either unbelievable or without suspense. This book portends to have both, but falls short on both counts.

Have to say, save the money and pass on this one.

In her Coral Gables, Florida home, police detective Charlotte Monroe shockingly sees her spouse Parker and their daughter Gracey amiably talking with Jacob Bright Sky Panther, who she recognizes from the FBI's Most Wanted list. Jacob escapes abducting Gracey. Stunned, Charlotte questions her husband who reluctantly confesses that Jacob is his son from a summer affair with a Cherokee woman years ago in a North Carolina camp owned by his father. That same season arson burned down the camp killing his dad.

Charlotte believes that Gracey is being held in the North Carolina Mountains near the sight of the burned out camp. There Charlotte and Parker hope to rescue their daughter though the latter does not believe his son would harm his stepsister. Making matters more complex is bad blood flows, as it has for over a hundred sixty years, between whites and Native Americans, placing their teenage daughter in further jeopardy.

The opening prequel from 1838 is incredible, which makes for a tough act to follow, but for the most part James W. Hall achieves the objective. The exhilarating story line is at its best when either the felon Jacob or the schizoid Gracey serves as the focus as these two characters seem so genuine. Charlotte is an intriguing police officer with unique talents that surface as she behaves like a lioness seeking to rescue her cub. On the other hand, Parker, as the key link between the players, is one dimensional and never comes across as someone in conflict struggling between what to do for his two offspring. Fans will relish this tense thriller especially when the action moves to the Carolina mountainside.

Harriet Klausner