Tropical Freeze [Hardcover]

James W. Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1989

Thorn is back! The hero of last year's surprise suspense hit, Under Cover of Daylight, Thorn is a Key Largo fisherman turned avenger despite himself and cursed with a nose for trouble. The mysterious disappearance of his boyhood friend, an FBI agent, entangles Thorn in a web of violence in the exotic locale of the Caribbean.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fisherman Thorn, first seen in the well-received Under Cover of Daylight , is getting his life together slowly, rebuilding his house in the Florida Keys and supporting himself by making fishing lures. When his boyhood friend, ex-FBI agent Gaeton Richards, disappears, his sister Darcy enlists Thorn in a campaign to nail Gaeton's boss, Benny Cousins, the not-quite-respectable head of a multinational rent-a-cop business who is determined to become a force in local "conch" affairs. But little is what it seems: Thorn and Darcy find themselves up against not only Benny but also violent, Florida cracker Ozzie, who lusts for Darcy and works for Papa John, local "character" and scam-master--and Benny's nasty racket may be protected by the Feds. Fast, cinematic scene-shifting, garish gallows humor (Tropical Freeze is the name on Papa John's ice cream truck--with a corpse in its freezer) and a violent, roller-coaster plot lead to a bleak, cynical ending. The main flavor is rue: the people in the Keys who came "to the outer fringes of America to nourish their rugged individualism" are losing it to modern civilization. 35,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; Mysterious Book Club selection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A terrific read with a gritty and tangible sense of place, a hero who's a cross between Davy Crockett and Philip Marlowe, and a lyrical, almost poetic touch in scenes both sexual and violent. -- Orlando Sentinel

Explosive . . . suspenseful . . . action galore. -- Worcester Telegram & Gazette

James Hall's writing is astringent, penetrating, and unfailingly gripping. -- Dean Koontz

James W. Hall's lyrical passion for the Florida keys, his spare language and unusual images haunt us long after the story has faded. -- New York Times Book Review

Menacing . . . brilliantly written!" -- USA Today

Provocative and suspenseful . . . a worthy and brilliant successor to Under Cover of Daylight. -- Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 319 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (August 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393026949
• ISBN-13: 978-0393026948
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,372,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine, funny, suspenseful, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tropical Freeze (Paperback)

This is Hall's second novel, Thorn's second outing. It is rich with minor characters and full of the elegant writing that marks all of his work. The book is about a scheme to smuggle into the US some very bad guys from other countries. Thorn stumbles onto it after losing one of his childhood friends who was an FBI agent working on the case.

There are some really funny scenes and some beautiful snapshots of Key Largo. He brings that place alive brilliantly. It's almost as good as Under Cover of Daylight and right up there with some of the later Thorn novels, Mean High Tide and Red Sky at Night (my favorite).

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On Thin Ice, April 29, 2002

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Tropical Freeze (Paperback)

In this, James Hall's second novel featuring Thorn, the author expands on the one of the odder heroes of the Florida Keys. Thorn enjoys being the odd man out, anti-authority, anti-employment and a bit to out spoken for his own good. Mix this with an instinctive desire to right wrongs when they present themselves to him and you have a natural formula for trouble and good reading.

This time Thorn's friend, FBI agent Gaeton Richards involves him in a very strange car deal (where the buyer tries to feed the salesman to the alligators) and then offers Thorn a job as fishing guide for Benny Cousins, a local political up and comer. Thorn declines (later he has to drop Benny in a hot tub to make his point). Benny may sound good, but he acts bad, and he is up to something more than a little fishy. Unfortunately, Gaeton, who was working undercover in the Cousins organization is exposed and suddenly disappears.

Thorn is drawn into a relationship with Darcy Richards, Gaeton's sister and the local weatherwoman. The quest to find Gaeton ends grimly and Darcy and Thorn set about bringing the guilty to justice. What neither realizes is that Ozzie Hardison, a somewhat mentally deficient Florida Cracker (self-described), who has a compulsive yen for Darcy, is convinced that, if he only could kill everyone she liked, she would surely fall for him. Ozzie is a loser for sure, but he adds some deadly complications. Between Benny and Ozzie bad things are bound to happen.

James Hall has a knack for pure storytelling. He paints with firm well-made strokes that make each character and every scene stand out from all the others. He uses a strong sense of humor to contrast perfectly with the grim and ugly parts. This type of story, the modern day heroic tale, is a challenge to write well. In order to make the quest for justice work the author must give away many of the plot's mysteries, hoping to draw us into the plot with suspense and ingenuity. Once again, Hall has proved himself a master of this genre.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Gangster games on the seamy side of the Florida Keys, April 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Tropical Freeze (Hardcover)

There aren't many characters to root for in this story, especially the anti-social, anti-authority hero Thorn. Too typically, the characters for whom Thorn has a soft spot are murdered and his latest girlfriend is the sister of a childhood chum (she also nurses a grudge). However, to lift this novel from a lower rating, there is a clever underground railroad service that the bad guys offer to undesirables who want to disappear from their enemies. The title deserves some credit too for the double entendre applied to both a winter cold spell and the utilization of an ice cream truck