Great book!
Mean High Tide
by James W. Hall
Beneath the still blue waters off Key Largo a woman dives into a dazzling array of color. But behind the shimmering schools of fish, somewhere in the shadows of the reef, a death trap awaits. In minutes one life will be expertly, brutally taken, and another plunged into a mean season of fury, obsession, and revenge... His name is Thorn, his world is mangrove islands, open waters, and the ghosts of a too-violent past. Darcy Richards was everything to him. Now, finding her killer is. Wading into a seething mystery, Thorn is catapulted into a nightmare of violence and deception. There lurks a sensual young woman with a hard come-on, an aging former mobster, and a diabolical ex-CIA man. What they all have in common is each other's mad ruthlessness -- and a little red fish that will make some people very rich, and others very dead...
Reviews
Awesome
Can't believe it
You had to kill her? So very disappointed, swore I wouldn't continue reading. I love Thorn so I guess ill survi!
Not worth the nightmares
I started reading Hall's Thorn series because I like to read about my home state of Florida. I've read the first three, hoping the unresolved horrors in the second, Tropical Freeze, would be resolved and the murders avenged, but it didn't happen. The first thing this crook Benny Cousins does when arrives at Key Largo is to mutilate and murder a teenage couple who happen to be parked there while he was unloading his Mexican illegal. Described in sadistic detail and never mentioned again, except for somebody finding the dead kids eventually. Nobody concerned about who didi it. And then later, after taking over the Keys by paying off the cops and politicians, with the help of his wannabe hitman Ozzie, he murders Thorn's best friend, Gaeton, who is also Thorn's girlfriend's brother. And then Ozzie, fondly reminisces about his first kill, when as a kid he took his father's cop car and stopped a black man and his dog on the highway, got him out of his truck, hit him over head with a Coke bottle and left him for dead, after breaking his dog's tail. He was especially proud of that last detail. So in the end both of these characters are free and prospering. Unbelievable. I hoped in the next book, Mean High Tide, they would at least get caught and punished. But no, Thorn and Darcy have other things to think about, house building and fishing, no worries. Until Darcy is murdered. The most disturbing thing about this one is the senseless contradictions. Miss Sylvie, the murderess, who is intoduced as asexual, "not a woman," never had a menstual period, no breasts, not a tomboy either, no sexual desire at all, proceeds to seduce men to get them to kill her father, who she claims is having sex with her every night. And then at the end, after her mother turns up, she says she wants to go back to how it was before, "Just you and me, Daddy. We don't need her." Does any of this make sense? Not to mention all the gross tidbits thrown in -- a snipped off nose here, a clipped off thumb tip there, a random old lady hit by an out-of-control car, and more, don't get me started. I don't think I can read any more of this. The Florida descriptions are good but not worth the nightmares.
Lousy book.
Lousy book
Worth the time
Great read, absolutely up to Hall’s usual high standards. A little more gratuitous sex and twisted characters than usual, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
Just Plain Good Writing
Great characters. Good story. good pace. Just plain good writing. I'm really enjoying the Thorn Series!
Good read.
This book is a good read. I like the characters in the Thorn series. They work good together. A must read.
Mystery and Drama ar Its Best
Kept me on the edge of my seat. Could not wait to start reading each night and hated to put it down. Fell asleep more than one night. Highly recommend. Lots of surprises.
