Thorn Mystery

The Braswell family had everything people would kill for: money, looks, power. But their eldest son, the family's shining light, died in a bizarre fishing accident. And when he disappeared - hauled into the depths by the giant marlin he had been fighting - he took with him a secret so corrupt that it could destroy the Braswells.

Passion and intrigue heat up the Florida Keys as Thorn and Alexandra Rafferty face down a brutal killer bent on destroying everything they hold dear. In the widely acclaimed Blackwater Sound, James W. Hall brought together his two protagonists--the dark, hardbitten Thorn and the feisty Miami cop Alexandra Rafferty. But before Alexandra came into Thorn's life, there had been Anne Joy, a beautiful woman escaping from her violent past in the languid life of the Florida Keys.

A simple black-and-white photograph, taken during the 1964 Clay-Liston fight in Miami Beach, sets off a modern-day murder spree that reaches from the quiet neighborhoods of Miami to the back corridors of the White House. When the last remaining copy falls into the hands of Thorn, a Key Largo recluse, he and everyone he loves become the targets of madmen and trained killers, each of whom has his own powerful motive to see the photograph destroyed forever and its secrets kept hidden.

Thorn is aboard a houseboat in Hell's Bay when he is confronted by Abigail's son and alluring granddaughter. Thorn soon learns that they are his long-lost relatives - and that he is about to inherit a great fortune. He's also about to find out that being a member of the Bates family comes with a price.

Earl Hammond, the wealthy patriarch of a family of ranchers, lies dead, shot just as he was to donate his Coquina Ranch to the state to preserve it from developers. Spearheading the plan to save this environmental treasure was Thorn, a reluctant heir to a secret family fortune, who now finds himself in terrible danger as well.

The New York Times Book Review calls Edgar Award winner James W. Hall a “master of suspense,” and this new high-stakes thriller shows why as Thorn embarks on a mission to save his newfound son.

Earth Liberation Front, known as ELF, is a loosely knit organization comprised of environmental activists scattered around the country. These extremists take a “by any means necessary” approach to defending the planet.

A year ago Thorn's son, Flynn Moss, disappeared into the eco-underground, his only contact with Thorn a series of postcards chronicling his exploits. But a postcard arrives unlike the others, a call for help, Thorn jumps into action, setting off for North Carolina. But before Thorn arrives, he's intercepted by a federal agent who informs him he's too late - Flynn had been acting as an informant for the FBI, and when his traitorous acts were discovered, he was summarily executed.