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The Big Finish
Author:
Hall, James W.
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Series:
Thorn Mysteries, #11
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PS3558.A
Print Run: 40000
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ISBN-13: 9781250005014
LCCN: 2014031489
Imprint: Minotaur Books
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
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Pub Date: 12/02/2014
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $25.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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295 pages ; 26 cm.
H 9.5",
W 6.24",
D 1.1",
1.05 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Thorn mysteries ;
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Mystery/Detective Fiction
Suspense/Thriller
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Thrillers / Crime
FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Private Investigators
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LC Subjects:
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Ecoterrorism, Fiction
Mystery fiction
Revenge, Fiction
Suspense fiction
Thorn (Fictitious character), Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Ecoterrorism, Fiction
Mystery fiction
Revenge, Fiction
Thorn (Fictional character), Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 08/01/2014 |
| Readers let their minds take flight as international authors offer hard science fiction stories featuring artificial intelligence, unorthodox allergy treatments in the form of tattoos, interplanetary conflict, the future of baseball, climate change, and other fantastical topics. Thorn Mysteries series, 304pp., 40K, Auth res: Coral Gables, FL; Boone, NC |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 12/01/2014 |
| If you want to create a badass protagonist in suspense fiction, give him only one name, like Robert B. Parker's Spenser (and his uber-cool sidekick, Hawk) or James W. Hall's Thorn, hero of more than a dozen first-rate novels, the latest of which is The Big Finish. Thorn would like for his action days to be behind him; he wants nothing more than to live off the grid, just a simple life tying expensive flies for wealthy sport fishermen. But last year, Thorn discovered that he has a grown son, the result of a fleeting liaison a couple of decades back. His son, Flynn Moss, possesses an extraordinary talent for creating drama in Thorn's otherwise staid existence. Flynn is a major player in the eco-underground and is an experienced nonviolent saboteur. Now he is on the run, or perhaps dead, the only clue to his recent existence a postcard bearing the words "Help me!" Novels are often described as "character-driven" or "plot-driven"; the Thorn novels are rage-driven. Thorn will bear a lot with equanimity, but if you incur his serious ire, step back--no, scratch that, run away as fast as you can. Bruce Teirney. 304p. BOOKPAGE, c2014. |
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| Booklist | 11/15/2014 |
| When we last saw Thorn, Hall's off-the-grid Key Largo flytier and trouble-solver, he was attempting to save his son, Flynn, who had fallen in with ecoterrorists (Going Dark, 2013). Thorn won the battle but lost the war, rescuing his son from the bad guys but unable to keep him from rejoining the ecoterrorists. Now Flynn is in deep trouble again, possibly dead, and Thorn heads off to rural North Carolina, where Flynn's group was attempting to close a toxic pig farm. But the pig farmer and his cronies struck out at their adversaries, killing most of them and destroying their camp--only Flynn's body wasn't discovered. Thorn and his long-suffering pal Sugerman sally off to set things right but find the odds seriously against them, thanks to a rogue FBI agent with her own agenda, a crazed vegan who likes to kill people by stuffing raw meat down their throats, and, of course, the shotgun-wielding pig farmer. As always, Hall combines absurdist mayhem with remarkably subtle character interaction. Thorn is a stripped-down hermit version of Travis McGee, but like Trav, he makes a fine avenging angel. Ott, Bill. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 11/01/2014 |
| Florida fly-tier/soldier of fortune Thorn, who's already tangled with his newly discovered son's attachment to eco-terrorists (Going Dark, 2013), gets another chance to rescue him--from some people even worse.Just as you'd expect from Thorn's grown son, Flynn Moss continues to go his own way, and his way this time takes him and his mates from the Earth Liberation Front to little Pine Haven, North Carolina, home to Webb Dobbins' hog farming operation. Unfortunately, ELF's attempt to get undercover footage of Dobbins' revolting, lovingly described, strictly legal hog-raising methods backfires spectacularly, drawing the wrath of Dobbins and his enforcer, Winston County Sheriff Burkhart. When a scrawled postcard arrives from Flynn asking Thorn for help, he grabs his buddy Sugarman and saddles up, fearing the worst. But their trip is complicated by two unsought companions. First Tina Gathercole, Sugarman's latest twist, asks to hitch a ride as far as Jacksonville. Then, FBI agent Madeline Cruz, smelling marijuana in Sugar's car, demands to search it and then insists on joining the party, sending Tina running right into the arms of X-88, an ex-con with such a sensitive nose he doesn't need a bloodhound to do his tracking, and his equally murderous companion Pixie. Smelling the first of a long series of rats, Thorn struggles to figure out who's on first, and throughout the early going, Hall keeps you guessing as he hides the ball. Eventually, everybody's forced to declare their true allegiances, and the action gets more straightforward. Thorn miraculously rises above his physical limitations to hammer the bad guys, and the townsfolk who had closed ranks against him miraculously back his play. Convenient. The John D. MacDonald of The Green Ripper meets the Upton Sinclair of The Jungle. Better get your fill of ham and bacon before you start this one. 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| Library Journal | 11/15/2014 |
| In 2013's Going Dark, South Florida recluse Thorn discovered he had an adult son, Flynn, an actor-turned-ecowarrior. In this follow-up, Thorn gets a postcard ostensibly from Flynn pleading for help. He promptly heads to a huge North Carolina hog farm where several of Flynn's colleagues have been murdered and from where he is missing, probably wounded. Thorn's search is quickly complicated by a crooked FBI agent, a murderous ex-con with an unusual ability to track by smell, and the vicious owners of the farm, who are intent on stopping any interference. VERDICT As in Edgar Award winner Hall's 13 previous series titles, Thorn is a passionate individualist with empathy for the victims of social and racial injustice. Aided here by poor whites, a downtrodden black community, and some illegal weapons, he delivers justice on his own terms. Hall's trademark mix of strikingly drawn characters caught in ever more perilous situations will keep his many fans turning the pages. [See Prepub Alert, 6/16/14.]. Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale. 304p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 06/16/2014 |
| In last year's Going Dark, series hero Thorn's son Flynn disappeared into a radical eco-movement group. Now, rushing to find him after a call for help via postcard, Thorn is told that Flynn had been acting as an informant for the FBI and was executed when his undercover activities were discovered. But the truth proves to be pretty thorny. From a Shamus and Edgar Award winner. 304p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 10/13/2014 |
| Edgar-winner Hall's heart-pounding 14th Thorn novel (after 2013's Going Dark) takes the hard-bitten Florida PI to Pine Haven, N.C., where Thorn's newly discovered son, Flynn Moss, and his fellow Earth Liberation Front activists target a hog factory farm in an "action" that goes awry. Shortly after, Thorn receives the latest in a series of postcards from Flynn, dropped anonymously at the office of his PI friend, Sugarman, and bearing only two words: "Help Me." The rescue attempt mounted by the pair soon becomes complicated as Sugar's girlfriend, Tina Gathercole, and an FBI agent, Madeline Cruz, attach themselves to the effort. Meanwhile, murderous ex-con X-88 and his girlfriend, Pixie, descend on Pine Haven with evil intent. Hall keeps the tension mounting as motives and alliances shift with the foul-scented wind. Even as violence looms, Hall's talent for description adds a balancing, poetical note. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Dec.). 304p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014. |
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