Hell’s Bay features the long-time reoccurring character Thorn (we learn his full name is Daniel Oliver Thorn) who has a knack for getting involved in “shit-storms” when he’s not tying flies or fishing. This time he tangles with big phosphate, and his ex-cop friend Sugarman is running interference.

Thorn, improbably, finds out he’s heir to a large area of land in Central Florida and a family-owned corporation involved in phosphate mining. When the family – Thorn’s family now - starts dying, he becomes a target too, when all he’s trying to do is help a friend run a fishing charter business in the everglades.

James W. Hall has a habit of explicitly spelling out who’s bad and who’s good, in case the reader can’t figure it out. His characters tend toward black and white, with some gray for minor characters. And Thorn is depicted as a little gray, but we know he’s really white because everything he does is for the right reasons.

In this story, as in most of them really, it’s people who love Florida vs. people who love money, which is basically the state’s history, up to and including present time. As usual, we know who’s winning, at least in real life. If only fiction held more sway. ( )

phosphate mining, everglades

Good murder mystery. However, the characters are a little out of whack. I can't quite get a hold on the hero getting his ass kicked by women. ( )