James W. Hall not only tells an intriguing story, but his quality of writing is superior to most in this genre.

James W Hall has a knack for creating quirky characters and sleazy bad guys. In this book, he has outdone himself with Dougie Barnes, a dimwitted, muscle-bound, rhyme-spouting, trash-talking thug with an appetite for murder and sex. If you think he's bad, wait until you meet his dad, Douglas, Sr.

In Bones of Coral, ambulance paramedic Shaw Chandler of Miami finds his long lost dad dead in an apparent suicide. Then he gets a frantic call from his Mom. The next thing you know, Shaw is headed to his hometown of Key West to learn the truth about his dad's death and some startling discoveries about his past. James W Hall is an excellent story teller and Bones of Coral is a knock down thriller that will stay with you long after you put it down.

FIVE STARS!!

Hall has the ability to bring you right into setting and engross the reader in the story. As in all of his books, he always has great villians and that is the fun part of the book.

I am a native Floridian (4th generation)and it is truly amazing how accurate the recipes and the history information is.

This book is a wonderful collection of tantalizing recipes and interesting Floridian history! I recommend it for anyone who lives here, has been here, or just enjoys Florida.

I'm no cook and I found the easy to follow recipies a "real treat", but that's nothing compared to the way the dishes came out. Truly awesome!

The diving section of the book is succinct; too much so in our opinion. Numerous divesites are mentioned, however little fine detail is there for the boater. You'll know which sites to ask the diving operations for. The rest of the book covers many of the tourism opportunities in the Keys. An excellent guidebook and supplement for our diving website!

I had the opportunity to participate in an in-water interactive program at the Dolphin Connection at Hawk's Cay Resort...the Insider's Guide recommended it as a stop off in our tour of the Florida Keys. The photo in the text does not give this program justice...you have to participate to believe how interesting and personal our time with the dolphins was. The trainers were friendly and knowledgable...and made us feel like we were part of their family, too. If you are planning a trip to the keys, this book is a MUST HAVE!

I bought this book in Key West after looking for a decent overview of the history of the Florida Keys. This is the best that I've found so far.

The book works through a specific era, starting with general information about the time, and ending each chapter with one or two stories about a specific resident of the Keys. These stories are what make the book truly interesting. Each chapter has a small map indicating the notable Keys of the period.

The book covers the time span from pre-European settlement to just before World War II. Viele goes into detail about the wrecking industry, sponging, and farming of the Keys. The details of Flagler's railroad and the Overseas Highway are well covered, but perhaps not as well as some of the books dedicated to these subjects.

There are good black and white illustrations and historical photos throughout.

My only complaint is that the book stops before WWII, leaving many years left to be covered.

I picked this book up at Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys out of curiousity and could not put it down. I am a frequent visitor to the keys and found the stories enlightning due to my knowledge of the area. Good illustrations and facts about the area. I look forward to reading the next two in the series. This book will inform you about the conditions and ways of life in the Keys in the early days. You will also start to recognize landmarks and features named after people in this book. A good read

Excellent pictures of great Key West houses including addresses. No interior pictures. Book fell apart at binding after very little viewing.

I love this book. If you enjoy the unique look of Key West Conch architecture you will enjoy this book. Color full page and full page plus photographs fill the book. Most pictures are full close-ups of the front of the house. It is a nice reminder of time spent in Key West. If you are interested in architecture it contains examples of the various unique Key West styles used. I enjoyed looking at picture of the famous houses and reading about why they are famous. Almost forgot it, contains the addresses of the houses in case you want to see them for yourself.

Camp Coral in Key West, Florida, is a happy vacation site for the Aldens and their new cousin, Soo Lee, but the Boxcar Children must investigate when a precious coral bed is destroyed on a nearby island. Can the Boxcar children come to the rescue?

When Benny, Violet, Jessie, and Henry go to the Everglade's camp, they find a mystery. A marine biologist does not know about any fish! Is he a real biologist. Then, someone steals Violet's conch shell. And there are two people who don't talk much, but that is only the beginning of the mystery.

Usually with a travel guide, you need to use your imagination. You can't actually see what attractions look like, the maps aren't always clear and the descriptions are as short and succinct as possible.

That is definitely not the case with this book which is stuffed chock full of gorgeous pictures. The maps are colorful and detailed. Full pages are spent on various attractions and excursions that in other guideboks are written up in a mere paragraph.

If you're looking for a hotel recommendation or a write up on a place to eat, this probably isn't the right book for you. But, if you want to know what to do aside from sleeping and eating, buy this book.

Every page has a color picture on it! Divided by neighborhoods, it has great maps and walking tours. Excursions outside of Miami to National Parks and Fort Lauderdale are included. The different islands of the Keys are discussed in detail. There is also a section on hotels by price range and restaurants.

I give this book three stars simply because the plight of the sea turtles is a story that needs telling and retelling until the public is educated and the creatures are brought away from the edge of extinction.

On the downside, this novel, put out by a small science publisher out of Malabar, FL, could've used better editing. The text is filled with small grammatical errors (like pluralizing the Kemp's ridley sea turtle as "ridley's") that detract from the largely entertaining storyline. Otherwise, the sophomore effort by author/veterinarian Greg Lewbart is not nearly as polished as Florida thrillers penned by the likes of Hiaasen, McDonald, etc., and the factual background of the tale draws too heavily, even clumsily, from its primary source, the writings of Dr. Archie Carr.

That aside, the heart and devotion with which Lewbart writes is readily apparent, and his protagonist, Hal Noble, is a likable hero in Everyman's clothing. A laudable effort.

This was a very entertaining and educational book. It had a great plot and once I started reading it, I found it difficult to put down. I read it in one day. I also learned a lot about sea turtles that I didn't know before. Read it!

definitely read this book. It is one of the most excellent and interesting books I have read. Once I started reading I couldn't put it down. It was very entertaining but at the same time educational

There aren't many characters to root for in this story, especially the anti-social, anti-authority hero Thorn. Too typically, the characters for whom Thorn has a soft spot are murdered and his latest girlfriend is the sister of a childhood chum (she also nurses a grudge). However, to lift this novel from a lower rating, there is a clever underground railroad service that the bad guys offer to undesirables who want to disappear from their enemies. The title deserves some credit too for the double entendre applied to both a winter cold spell and the utilization of an ice cream truck

In this, James Hall's second novel featuring Thorn, the author expands on the one of the odder heroes of the Florida Keys. Thorn enjoys being the odd man out, anti-authority, anti-employment and a bit to out spoken for his own good. Mix this with an instinctive desire to right wrongs when they present themselves to him and you have a natural formula for trouble and good reading.

This time Thorn's friend, FBI agent Gaeton Richards involves him in a very strange car deal (where the buyer tries to feed the salesman to the alligators) and then offers Thorn a job as fishing guide for Benny Cousins, a local political up and comer. Thorn declines (later he has to drop Benny in a hot tub to make his point). Benny may sound good, but he acts bad, and he is up to something more than a little fishy. Unfortunately, Gaeton, who was working undercover in the Cousins organization is exposed and suddenly disappears.

Thorn is drawn into a relationship with Darcy Richards, Gaeton's sister and the local weatherwoman. The quest to find Gaeton ends grimly and Darcy and Thorn set about bringing the guilty to justice. What neither realizes is that Ozzie Hardison, a somewhat mentally deficient Florida Cracker (self-described), who has a compulsive yen for Darcy, is convinced that, if he only could kill everyone she liked, she would surely fall for him. Ozzie is a loser for sure, but he adds some deadly complications. Between Benny and Ozzie bad things are bound to happen.

James Hall has a knack for pure storytelling. He paints with firm well-made strokes that make each character and every scene stand out from all the others. He uses a strong sense of humor to contrast perfectly with the grim and ugly parts. This type of story, the modern day heroic tale, is a challenge to write well. In order to make the quest for justice work the author must give away many of the plot's mysteries, hoping to draw us into the plot with suspense and ingenuity. Once again, Hall has proved himself a master of this genre.

This is Hall's second novel, Thorn's second outing. It is rich with minor characters and full of the elegant writing that marks all of his work. The book is about a scheme to smuggle into the US some very bad guys from other countries. Thorn stumbles onto it after losing one of his childhood friends who was an FBI agent working on the case.

There are some really funny scenes and some beautiful snapshots of Key Largo. He brings that place alive brilliantly. It's almost as good as Under Cover of Daylight and right up there with some of the later Thorn novels, Mean High Tide and Red Sky at Night (my favorite).

I'm a big fan of Lee Child. His first book, "Killing Floor", was an excellent read. His second novel, although not as good as his first, was still a book I couldn't put down until I had finished it. However, on reading his third book, I was extremely disapointed to find that Lee Child seem's to have gone all "Hollywood" and "mainstream" in that he seems to be reaching for the female readership at the expense of his loyal male following, whom his first two books were aimed at.

Jack Reacher is Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. A Charles Bronson or Arnold Swarzennegger. Alas just as Swarzenegger sold out in order to reach the female audience with his kiddie films etc, Lee Childs has turned parts of his third book into a slushy, soppy romance. Not only do we have the obliqitory "Hollywood" sex scenes but the excitement and anticipation of this action thriller stops and starts because action hero Jack Reacher can't stop thinking about his girlfriend whom he falls in love with. This is extremely disapointing. It really spoils the book and dilutes the main character.

In the first book Jack Reacher was a "John Rambo", a drifter with no emotional attachments wandering from town to town trying to make some sense of his life and his past. In this book, Lee Child has lost his sense of direction with his character.

I hope that Lee child doesn't start borrowing his mother's bedtime reading otherwise Jack Reacher might start changing nappies, denying his masculinity and want to search for his feminine side. Worse, I fear that Lee Child may turn into a male version of Babara Cartland.

I literally just finished reading Tripwire, and it was a good book, easily up there with Lee Child's other Jack Reacher books, but still not quite as "oh my god" awesome as Killing Floor. The villian this time was (without giving anything away) a fairly common type of character, whose true nature I saw coming well in advance of the final couple of chapters. Even so, this was a good novel, but not quite the "can't put it down to go to sleep" type of read that Killing Floor was. Maybe Lee Child will be like William Gibson, in that everything he writes after his first novel will be damn good, but just never able to measure up to that first work. That said, I'll still keep buying everything the guy writes.

Lee Child writes some amazing books! I first read The Killing Floor and really couldn't put it down. I tend to read things out of order (even though I really don't plan it that way), so I've now read Tripwire before the second Jack Reacher novel. However, that one won't be far behind!

I made the mistake of reading some of the reviews here while I was in the middle of the book. I was fascinated by the plot twists and couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next. Then I read about all of the "factual errors" in the various scenarios. That sort of soured me on the book a bit, and then I realized that even though there ARE factual errors in the book, the book is FICTION and doesn't have to be factual. All in the all, when you get to the end, I think you'll see that what Reacher finally discovered COULD have happened.

I don't ordinarily find books that merit 5 stars, and I do read a lot of books, but I have to tell you, if you can get past occasional wordiness in descriptions and certain inconsequencial factual inconsistencies, I believe you'll enjoy watching the drama unfold and wend its way through a stunning conclusion!