Buzz Cut

Critics have called James W. Hall's previous  bestsellers  "electrifying,""innovative,"and "brilliantly suspenseful." Now Hall  brings us his most haunting and relentlessly  gripping novel yet--a work that proves why the  San Francisco Chronicle has hailed him  as one of the nation's "finest and most  literate of thriller writers."

A  Florida cruise ship under siege provides the  spellbinding backdrop for Hall's latest novel. On  board, a mad terrorist is threatening to blow up the  ship--and a large part of the Florida coastline as  well. The madman, an unforgettable character with  a high-tech stun gun and a strange fascination  with word etymologies, illustrates why James Ellroy  calls Hall's villains "so well drawn and  amusing they make you giddy."  

Also on board is Thorn, the enigmatic, hard-bitten  hero last seen in Gone Wild, who, along with his  friend, Sugerman, must stop the bomber before he  redesigns the Southeastern United States. As the  novel races toward its explosive conclusion, Hall  sets the scene for a nerve-shattering  showdown--between the brutal and cunning terrorist and Thorn,  who reveals a deeper, darker, more unpredictable  side to his personality in this electrifying new  novel.

A thriller filled with the  author's signatures--vise-tightening suspense, steamy  sexuality, hypnotic prose, and off-beat  humor--Buzz Cut exposes the dark  underbelly and colorful chaos of James W. Hall's native  Florida, as it lays bare the tremendous talents of an  American master writing at the peak of his  storytelling powers.