Mean High Tide - Hardcover

Hall, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385307985 ISBN 13: 9780385307987

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1994

Synopsis

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...


From the Paperback edition.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

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

After a two-book hiatus, Thorn--the quixotic fly-tying Florida Keys protagonist of Under Cover of Daylight and Tropical Freeze --is back with a bang in Hall's fifth thriller. Darcy Richards, the love of Thorn's life and his assistant at best-buddy Sugarman's ragtag security agency, dies in a mysterious diving accident after enigmatically asking Thorn if he's ever heard of red tilapia, the exotic food fish. When he discovers that Darcy was murdered via a paralyzing judo handhold known only to covertly trained assassins, Thorn vows revenge. Following a bullet-dodging introduction to Sylvie, the sociopathic daughter of murderous Harden Winchester, Thorn stumbles across a twisted family tree. Hall ricochets this oddball cast helter-skelter through the sleazy mazes of south Florida's tourist-clotted off-ramps, across the alligator-infested Everglades to posh Naples and beyond. As usual, Hall's Uzi-punctuated prose is compelling. Despite the uncharacteristically bad, comic-opera melodrama of the climactic scene, Hall manages in this quirky, thought-provoking nail-biter to convey with ominous clarity the ecological warning: "The future is now."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Hall's latest blast of Florida heat resurrects stylish dropout Dick Thorn (Tropical Freeze, 1989), hell-bent on avenging the suspicious diving-accident death of his ladylove Darcy Richards, who'd been asking one question too many about red tilapia. Red what? Even ichthyologists would be surprised to learn that this tasty, but ugly, brown fish has now been genetically engineered in everybody's favorite designer color--a billion-dollar secret Darcy had gotten wise to when checking surveillance tapes for Thorn's old buddy Sugarman. A colorful attempt on his own life alerts Thorn to two enemies out of your most atavistic dreams: Roy Murtha, the liquor- store owner Darcy had first heard mention red tilapia, and Harden Winchester, a canny, demented Gulf Coast fish farmer who's spent millions developing the fast-breeding fish so that he can release them into the Gulf, thereby wiping out thousands of less competitive species and incidentally ending the only life his ex-wife Doris' dying husband, a commercial fisherman, can imagine. Best Villain honors, though, go to Harden's daughter Silvie, ``the girl with no sex,'' who feeds each man she meets a tale of incest in order to persuade him to go up against invincible Harden. When Thorn, eager for his own crack at Harden, falls in with Silvie, things really heat up. Thorn's brief, maniacally funny masquerade as Harden's chief fish-farm rival ends with Thorn heading back to Harden's place--where Doris, eager for a reunion with the daughter she abandoned years ago, and Murtha, hot on her trail, are also bound. Merry, brawny, and rambunctious: guaranteed to please fans of John D. MacDonald, Elmore Leonard, and anybody in between. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The author of best-selling thrillers like Hard Aground (Delacorte, 1993) returns with yet another violent romp through the Florida Keys.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Like Hall's last few books, this one is set in the seamy Florida Keys; here the brooding hero, Thorn, is out to avenge the murder of his girlfriend, Darcy. While searching for clues, Thorn stumbles on a potential environmental nightmare: someone is breeding a strain of aggressive "superfish," which would multiply at a tremendous rate and endanger the survival of other forms of marine life. With the help of his amiable ex-cop buddy Sugarman, Thorn encounters an array of bizarre characters, not the least of which is Sylvie, a slinky femme fatale who may or may not be a victim of child sexual abuse. Sylvie seduces men she thinks will be a match for her formidable ex-CIA dad, Harden Winchester, who has a hand in the breeding of the superfish. When confronted with a straightforward, no-nonsense character like Thorn, the initially tantalizing Sylvie becomes a bit tiresome, acting the little girl and referring to herself in the third person. Others in this family affair include Sylvie's long-lost mother and former mafioso grandfather; indeed, during his climactic encounter with seemingly invincible Harden (Hall likes to choose meaningful character names: Thorn, Harden, Sugarman, etc.), Thorn discovers all the horrific secrets about the Winchester family. Mean High Tide is a terrific ride through the Everglades, with strong (although broadly drawn) characters, an intriguing environmentalist plot, and a chain of events that will keep the reader guessing. Joe Collins

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385307985
• ISBN 13: 9780385307987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 371