Off the Chart

Description

A chance encounter with an old flame sets reluctant investigator Thorn on a collision course with some of Florida's most ruthless killers in a heart-stopping story of modern-day piracy from the acclaimed author of Blackwater Sound, hailed by Dennis Lehane as 'the king of Florida noir'. Anne Joy first fled to the Sunshine State to escape a violent past. Now, years later, she slips back into bad company when she gets entangled with Daniel Salbone, a rising figure in the local mob whose men have been terrorising shipping lanes. When Thorn's old connection with Anne comes to light, he is desperate not to be dragged into dangerous waters. But the kidnapping of his best friend's daughter forces him to embark on a hunt that will take him from the deceptive lushness of the Florida Keys to a nightmare climax in one of the most remote and blood-chilling spots in the Caribbean.

James Hall was born in Kentucky. He teaches in the Creative Writing Programme at Florida International University in Miami.'James Hall is the master of suspense, his writing runs as clear and fast as the Gulf Stream waters.' New York Times Book Review

'Hall has been one of my favourite crime writers for a long time. He's great. This is a bodacious novel: cool and violent, but with an energy that's hard to resist. Top of the class.' Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday 'James Hall really pulls it all together in Blackwater Sound. If violence can be poetic, Hall has the lyric voice for it. Truly haunting.' New York Times 'James Hall, the king of Florida noir, delivers across the board with Blackwater Sound. Chock-full of vivid characters, startlingly explosive moments of ultra-violence and seamlessly elegiac prose' DENNIS LEHANE 'Hall has always blazed a unique path through the killing fields of crime fiction. Blackwater Sound is another original and his best yet. With beautiful prose and a heavily muscled story, it moves with the grandeur and unpredictability of a hooked marlin' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'A gorgeous and compelling novel about the merciless predators both in and above the waters of south Florida' ROBERT CRAIS