James W. Hall – författare

DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF WHAT MAKES A MEGA-BESTSELLER IN THIS ENTERTAINING, REVELATORY GUIDE  What do Michael Corleone, Jack Ryan, and Scout Finch have in common? Creative writing professor and thriller writer James W. Hall knows. Now, in this entertaining, revelatory book, he reveals how bestsellers work, using twelve twentieth-century blockbusters as case studies—including The Godfather, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Jaws. From tempting glimpses inside secret societies, such as submariners in The Hunt for Red October, and Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code, to vivid representations of the American Dream and its opposite—the American Nightmare—in novels like The Firm and The Dead Zone, Hall identifies the common features of mega-bestsellers. Including fascinating and little-known facts about some of the most beloved books of the last century, Hit Lit is a must-read for fiction lovers and aspiring writers alike, and makes us think anew about why we love the books we love.

Eighteen years ago, a girl shot down a rapist while her father''s lawnmower sputtered in the yard outside. Somewhere in the heat and shadows of that day, Alexandra Rafferty took on the burden of her deed, and forged a bond of silence with her cop father. But now Alexandra''s husband has left, her father is clinging to his health, and a Miami serial killer is leaving behind death scenes that go beyond the horrific. For Alexandra, her life and work are exploding--exposing the truth about the killer she seeks, the lover she''s choosing, and one summer afternoon that has never gone away...Body Language is one of James W. Hall''s greatest Thorn mysteries--a heartfelt and gripping thriller.

When her parents were murdered, Hannah Keller was 3,000 miles away, on leave from her job with the Miami Police Department. Her family''s only survivor on that deadly day was Hannah''s six-year-old son Randall. While fishing on the dock behind his grandparents'' house, the boy glimpsed the killers, and later discovered his grandparents'' bullet-riddled bodies.Five years later the trauma of that day still haunts the boy. He lives in terror that the killers will return for him. Hannah is no longer a cop but now works full time as a novelist, and is trying to do whatever she can to heal her son''s wounds. But when she receives a coded message apparently from her parents'' killers, the entire episode explodes again. Teaming up with a maverick FBI agent from the Miami field office, Hannah begins to track the killer. As she moves deeper into the labyrinth, she discovers, to her horror, that she and her son are being used as pawns in an elaborate scheme--a trap designed to catch one of the world''s deadliest assassins. Hannah and Randall become entangled in a bitter feud, a burning vendetta, and the mind of a bloodthirsty professional killer. In Rough Draft, his most exciting Thorn novel yet, James W. Hall brings events to a breathtaking conclusion.

In the tradition of James Dickey''s Deliverance and Charles Frazier''s Cold Mountain, bestselling author and award-winning poet James W. Hall has written a literary novel that is also an intricate, suspenseful mystery—a story blending the macabre and the historic, the genteel and the aberrant, the violent and the heroic. With his signature mix of brooding atmosphere and compelling action that readers have come to expect from his Thorn series, Hall takes readers deep into America''s own Heart of Darkness in Forests of the Night. Policewoman Charlotte Monroe has cop instincts. Scratch that. There isn''t a name for the gift she has, something that borders on psychic, an ability to read people''s faces and body language like the morning headlines—to size up their intentions and act before they do. It''s a real ability that the FBI is trying to teach to its agents. The bureau is spending millions so they''ll know the difference between a slightly raised eyebrow and a faint twitch of the lip. But Charlotte''s a natural with god-given abilities, and the Feds want her in the worst way, maybe even to the point of blackmail.Still, Charlotte''s gift fails to prepare her for the stranger who shows up on her doorstep with a chilling warning for her husband, a mysterious note scrawled in Cherokee hieroglyphics and a promise of things to come: "You''re Next."The warning becomes more ominous as Charlotte and her husband, Parker, discover the complex truth about this man, including his position on the FBI Most Wanted list and his connection to their family.When Charlotte''s deeply troubled teenage daughter runs away to join the charismatic outlaw, she follows the two of them into the spectral mists of the Great Smoky Mountains—and to the beating heart of a 150-year-old blood feud that will endanger everything she loves and challenge everything she believes.

An Amazon Charts bestseller.

After her journalist husband and infant son are brutally executed in a fire in their Florida home, photographer Harper McDaniel has nothing left to live for—except settling the score. When the local police fail to take the arson seriously, Harper takes the reins and discovers her husband was investigating some mysterious deaths at a cacao plantation on the Ivory Coast. Now she’s convinced he was targeted in a corporate conspiracy to silence him.

Aided by her former mafioso grandfather and well-connected financier brother, Harper embarks on a global manhunt, flying first to Africa, then Zurich to expose a high-level cover-up inside a powerful chocolate conglomerate.

But Harper has a few secrets of her own—starting with her lethal martial arts skills—and she’s not afraid to take on any hired guns or guerrillas standing in her way. In trying to cover their tracks, the conspirators made one fatal miscalculation: they didn’t count on Harper McDaniel coming for them.