Customer Reviews

Off the Chart

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thorne, the hero of so many of James W. Hall's thrillers is once again faced with a difficult situation. An insane "pirate", Vic Joy, wants his land in a prime location on the Florida Keys to build a very large resort. He resorts to kidnapping Thorne's best friend Sugerman's daughter. Thorne tries to use his past relationship with Vic Joy's sister, Anne, to discover where the child is being held. It is a race against time to rescue the child before the insane Joy decides to kill her.
James W. Hall never fails to please with his high octane thrillers rich in characterizations and depiction of the South Florida locale. OFF THE CHART is no exception. There is, however, a certain sense of predictability in the plot. A recurring theme in James W. Hall's books is the maladjusted siblings. This has been used in several prior Hall novels. Names of the villains are very original and memorable whether it is the notorious Butler Jack or the current Vic Joy. Technology has finally caught up with the characters in that contact with the kidnapping victim is via satellite internet connection. The plots of the books by James W. Hall are well planned. It is apparent the author knows where he is taking us and both reader and author have fun on the ride. As with all the thrillers by Jim Hall, this one comes highly recommended.

James W. Hall's "Off the Chart" is a suspenseful, complex tale populated with three-dimensional characters in a vibrant setting.

A modern day high seas pirate with a Mafia background, a violent psycho pirate wannabe, a former Secretary of Navy working covertly for a black helicopter organization converge to alter the life of confirmed loner Thorn's newly idyllic life.

Via deceit and deception the villains coerce and convince Thorn's best friend Sugarman and girl friend Alexandra to abandon him---leaving Thorn to fend for himself versus the land-grabbing pirates.

In the attempt to seize Thorn's valuable five acres of waterfront property, the pirates abduct Sugarman's nine-year-old daughter---introducing a ticking clock subplot that leads to a nightmare confrontation.

The crisply written high octane pacing never slows as the action moves from the Keys to the middle of the ocean to the Central American jungles.

Jim Hall never disappoints---superior in every way.

Early in this one, still-thorny and always-horny Thorn finds himself trying to explain to Alexandra, his current squeeze, the kiss a waitress named Anne Joy has just planted on his lips. Turns out, Anne and Thorn had a passionate but short-lived fling a while back. She's the sister of the notorious hoodlum Vic Joy, and guess what? We haven't heard the last of her - or her brother.

Don't think for a second Vic Joy hasn't heard about Thorn. He has. Vic's the type who pulls the legs off frogs, and collects the testicles of family enemies. Not the kind of guy you want plotting to bring you down.

It's not long at all before a hoodlum named Marty Messina arrives at Thorn's doorstep in the Florida Keys and offers him 3 million for his property. When Thorn declines to sell, it's the signal for Vic to put into motion a plan designed to change his mind, and fast.

James W. Hall likes to build his stories by jumping from one character's head to another's. The Thorn novels, for example, include a minor character named Sugarman, a private eye who is usually enlisted to help Thorn in some way. At some point in the story, you can expect to find yourself in Sugarman's head as he investigates some bit of the puzzle facing Thorn in the main thread of the story.

Hall is particularly adept at building his villain's characterizations this way, and his stories always feature vivid and believable bad guys.

Vic Joy's plan is simple; he grabs Sugarman's 11 year old daughter and holds her for ransom. The deed to Thorn's property for the girl. Take it or leave it.

This time, though, when the jump to Sugarman's head comes, it ends up lasting too long, and the several segments of the plot involving him and his search for his kidnapped daughter take up way too much of the stage time, while little or nothing is going on with Thorn. It's a major flaw I haven't seen before in this prolific author's work.

In fact, if Thorn hadn't been (conveniently) kidnapped by Vic and dragged along to attend the big convention of pirates at the denouement - the same place (too coincidenatlly) where Sugarman's daughter is being held, he wouldn't even have been in on the big climactic showdown which for the most part fizzled rather than sizzled.

It doesn't feel as if as much energy went into the creation of this novel as has been invested in the others. There are spurts of color, especially when the scene involves Alexandra's demented father, but for the most part Thorn is lifeless. It's almost as if he doesn't give a damn about his own story.

Read the other Thorn novels first, then if you absolutely need another fix, pick up this one.

Art Tirrell is the author of The Secret Ever Keeps.
"simply put, the best underwater scenes I've ever read." reviewer Meg W.

Talk about a part you can sink your teeth into - Thorn is it! However, voice actor John Bedford Lloyd sinks more than his teeth into this gritty thriller, he invests his vocal chords, his pinpoint phraseology, and his emotions. A rare reading this!

The sometimes somnambulant, sometimes violent Florida Keys is Thorn's home. He relishes his privacy, and cherishes his small domain. There has been love in his life. Once there was Anne Joy, a beautiful woman escaping but not forgetting a past scarred by violence.

Her brother, Vic, hardly seems to be a blood relation - he's sick and sadistic, determined to wreak havoc in the life of all who came into contact with his sister. When he learns of Thorn's relationship with her Vic becomes intent on grabbing Thorn's home.

Nothing will stand in this psycho's way - not even an innocent, small child, the daughter of Thorn's best friend. The chase is on, and it torpedoes from Florida to the coast of Central America.

Hall is in his heyday with this one. The same can be said of listeners who relish steamy, suspenseful thrillers.

- Gail Cooke

See book description above.

I am never disappointed with James W. Hall. His novels always keep me on edge and it seems he gets better and better with each novel. This time around he seems to have made his protagonist, Thorn, a little more human, and not quite the superhero he was in previous novels. A fast paced and very gripping story. Keep up the good work.

Highly recommended.

I am a big James Hall fan and think he is the best of the Florida mystery/detective writers. In a league with Connelly, Crais and Lahane. This is a book searching for an idea. Half way through for the first time ever I thought I might have to put down a Hall book. It picked up then but there were just too many gaps. Where did they get a seaplane? How did it land so close without detection? How much punishment can Thorn take? Why is Thorn so contrary when he evidently leads a charmed life. I'll read more but hopefully there will be a return to form.

How do you like your Thorn? I like him fine and I like Hall's novels. So why the four stars and not five? Because this novel does not drive to a conclusion with quite the force of his other works. It has very complex plots (that's right PLOTS with an "S"). Now these are related and they are topical. Piracy, of both commercial vessels and the increasingly large and expensive fleet of pleasure craft is a serious and undiscussed problem outside the south Florida area. And the computer/cell phones, a vital part of high tech bucaneering, play a role in a kidnapping involving Sugarman's daughter. But so does birdwatching.

A brother-sister pirate duo is at the core of events. Both are influenced by myth, but each turns to the life for a different reason. The brother merely extends his land based piracy; the sister, a woman from Thorn's past, flies the jolly roger with her new lover. Chance meetings of important characters in restaurants (well, Monroe county is actually a small place in resident population), stray dogs, Largo-Miami commutes, fifteen foot stilt construction, roaring route one traffic, and even the strange web of law enforcement agencies of the Keys is all there. And Alexandra Rafferty, crime photographer, and her retired police officer/Alzheimer's suffering father have moved in with Thorn.

Sometimes less is more. Of course whoever posts the signs behind the counter at Seven Mile Grill or the decorating gang at Captain Tony's clearly don't believe that. Complicated as conch chowder, this one. Keys style.

Talk about a part you can sink your teeth into - Thorn is it! However, voice actor John Bedford Lloyd sinks more than his teeth into this gritty thriller, he invests his vocal chords, his pinpoint phraseology, and his emotions. A rare reading this!

The sometimes somnambulant, sometimes violent Florida Keys is Thorn's home. He relishes his privacy, and cherishes his small domain. There has been love in his life. Once there was Anne Joy, a beautiful woman escaping but not forgetting a past scarred by violence.

Her brother, Vic, hardly seems to be a blood relation - he's sick and sadistic, determined to wreak havoc in the life of all who came into contact with his sister. When he learns of Thorn's relationship with her Vic becomes intent on grabbing Thorn's home.

Nothing will stand in this psycho's way - not even an innocent, small child, the daughter of Thorn's best friend. The chase is on, and it torpedoes from Florida to the coast of Central America.

Hall is in his heyday with this one. The same can be said of listeners who relish steamy, suspenseful thrillers.

- Gail Cooke

James W. Hall was unfamiliar to me when I read this book. It was an interesting read and a little unusual but it is certainly worth reading. The plot is enjoyable and you get caught up in the story and want it to end according to your plan.

Would be happy to read other books by this author because he knows how to write.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

Before going to Key West last week, I asked at the Amazon forum for suggestions of books set near there, and Hall's series came up.

This is the first and only book of his that have read. It was an entertaining tale about a mysterious EMP device which triggered an airplane crash that kicks off the story.

I did not find that there was any mystery here, and, frankly, little action. Nonetheless, it entertained me with the Key Largo setting, and that was sufficient. However, in comparison to the other action novelists that I read, this was weak stuff. I have another of his books on my Kindle which I will read when I return to Southern Florida (to visit my dad).

The Kindle ediiton was fine with no significant typos or formatting issues.