Early Review

Okay, so here we go. The new book will be published two months from now (the 19th of January), and the early reviews start coming in right now. The Publisher's Weekly review came today and I was happy to see it was starred.

* Silencer James W. Hall. Minotaur, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-35959-1

Shamus-winner Hall's superlative 11th thriller to feature Thorn (after Hell's Bay) finds his iconoclastic Key Largo, Fla., PI with a newly acquired fortune. Thorn is excited when his girlfriend, Rusty Stabler, presents a deal to protect 300 square miles of Florida from development and also put Earl Hammond's Coquina Ranch game-hunting operation out of business. Then Hammond is shot to death, Thorn is kidnapped—but Hall is just getting warmed up. While Thorn tries to figure a way out of the literal hole he's in, Rusty and Thorn's longtime friend Sugarman try to track him. Warped contract killers Jonah and Moses Faust, who deal in serial killer memorabilia, and Hammond's very different sons, ex-football star Browning and Miami cop Frisco, play large roles. Hall steadily ratchets the suspense while seamlessly combining elements of Florida's natural history with elements of the state's early development and overdevelopment. (Jan.)


I should be blase about this stuff after getting reviews for twenty plus years. But I'm not. I was happy for this one, not because it sells books (because I'm not sure a starred review sells many), but because it's a nice validation of the work I did over the last year and a half. My editor and agent and publisher liked the book. My wife liked it (which is truly important), but it's always good to hear from a reviewer who is supposed to be somewhat objective.

So now I'm going to get back to work on the bestseller book revisions. They're almost done. It's a funnier book than I'd thought it would be when I started it a long while back. Sort of like my classes used to be, somewhat serious, but mostly not.

My wonderful web person is working on some updates on the site. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be interesting to hear.