Red Sky at Night [Mass Market Paperback]

James Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 1998

In one brutal instant, he lost everything--his freedom, his pride, the woman he loved.  What does it take to break a man?

It happens in an instant.  A man's life is ripped from the safe harbor he's almost found, hurtled back into the violence he has been running from for years.  The man's name is Thorn.  While investigating the bizarre slaughter of eleven trained dolphins, Thorn is viciously attacked.  Crippled by pain, he is bitter enough to drive his lover away, desperate enough to seek medical miracles at an experimental clinic.  There, his old friend, now a doctor, is on the brink of an awesome discovery: a cure for human pain.

Within hours of entering the Key West clinic, Thorn can sense the danger.  Patients are isolated.  Experiments are spinning wildly out of control.  Suddenly Thorn knows just how far his friend will go to find a cure.  Now, as a storm of greed and human suffering gathers around him, Thorn is scratching and clawing his way back to a life he almost had, back to the woman he almost married, and to the darkest truth of all: There is some pain that only killing can end.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Thorn, last spotted in the best-selling Buzz Cut (LJ 5/15/96), must come to grips with his own paralysis?the result of a savage beating?while holed up in a pain clinic run by a mad scientist.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Hall's hermit-sleuth Thorn has long been one of the most appealing and complex characters in crime fiction, but here he extends his range still further, taking the Travis McGee^-style genre hero to an altogether new level. Ensconced in his Key Largo beach house, Thorn seems to have carved a lasting separate peace with the modern world until a senseless crime drives the other side of his personality to the fore, the side that says, "There's something broken, and I have to fix it." What's broken this time, though, is Thorn himself, mysteriously paralyzed from the waist down after attempting to confront an apparent prowler. The story begins with the slaughter of several dolphins--killed for their endorphins, the key ingredient in a miracle, pain-killing drug--and extends to Thorn's distant past and his relationship with his best childhood friend, who has been nursing a grudge against Thorn for decades. All of Thorn's unresolved conflicts--Is he running away from the world or trying to save it?--come to the fore here, as Hall makes his hero (and the reader) face simultaneously the pain of powerlessness and the selfishness at the heart of a knight errant's gallantry. And yet, we cheer when Thorn sallies forth one more time, wheelchair-bound but determined to draw on the "white knot of gristle at his stubborn core." Melding the magnetic pull of the archetypal hero on a quest with the flesh-and-blood humanity of a vulnerable man trapped between conflicting needs, Hall masterfully works both ends of the genre street, transforming the beach-bum sleuth into an everyman while at the same time allowing readers to wonder if perhaps we, too, might find a stubborn core of our own, if only we plumbed deep enough. Popular fiction at its absolute best. Bill Ott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Dell (June 8, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440225744
• ISBN-13: 978-0440225744
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,485,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pain. There is no more lively sensation than that of pain;, September 9, 2002

By 

Allan M. Gathercoal "fdoamerica" (Norcross, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Sky at Night (Mass Market Paperback)

Pain. There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable. Marquis de Sade (1740-1814)

What a riveting book! This is my first James W. Hall novel and it I loved it. His strong, bold, vivid characters, often border on the audacious and bizarre. In "Red Sky at Night" Hall pulls you into worlds of paralysis, paraplegics and pain. And as Marquis de Sade said "there is no more lively sensation than that of pain". The Key West setting combined with the madness, murders, mayhem and macabre characters, makes this book a top ratebeach read. Strongly Recommended

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THRILLING..., November 17, 2001

By 

Carolyn C. Steele "Scribere est agere" (Annandale, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Red Sky at Night (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is one of the most exciting I've ever read. As an aficionado of mystery (Ruth Rendell is another of my favorites), I give this book a five star rating. In terms of twists and turns it's right up there with Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and Mercy by David L. Lindsay. It also has a deeply Floridian atmosphere and a few moments of black humor, a la the late lamented John D. McDonald. Don't make any immediate plans if you get ahold of this book; you won't want to put it down. A word of warning to the faint of heart: this is a medical thriller and has a few very dark moments. But the ending crackles and is MOST satisfying. Kudos to James W. Hall; keep them coming!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasue and Pain, February 23, 2006

By 

James P. Lea "James P. Lea 'bookaholic" (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Sky at Night (Center Point Premier Fiction (Large Print)) (Hardcover)

Although NOT for the faint of heart or squeamish this incredibly powerful and visceral thriller cements James W.Hall's place as one of the absolute best writers around. His ability to create incredibly complex characters and so throughly convey the trials they have to endure give so much emotional depth to his novels that simply classifying them as thrillers or mysteries does not do him justice. Combine this with his gift of being able to transport the reader to the point of actually feeling as if you are there in the Florida Keys and you have the makings of a great novel. My only warning would be don't start this book if you have other plans (you'll postpone them!) or want a good nights sleep. This book will stay with you long after you have finished the last page-enjoy!