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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780312974923
ISBN number: 0312974922
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: January 15, 2001
Publishing house: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Sale Popularity Level: 316733
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks
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Product Description:
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 his most exciting novel yet, Jim Hall brings events to a breathtaking conclusion.
Amazon.com Review:
James Hall's series about beach bum Thorne (Mean High Tide, Buzz Cut, Hard Aground) placed him firmly in a Holy Trinity of Floridian crime novelists. Like Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen, Hall brought to life Florida's alluring, addictive mix of sand and ocean, hibiscus and alligator, tanned skin and pastel stucco. Rough Draft, however, is less concerned with place than with plot: Miami is a cipher, a generic background for the convoluted whodunit (or perhaps more precisely, who's doing it to whom) Hall weaves around former policewoman and successful crime writer Hannah Keller.
Fiercely protective of her brilliant but haunted 11-year-old son, who five years ago witnessed the murders of his grandparents (presumably by the embezzler his grandfather was pursuing), Hannah becomes an unwitting pawn in an FBI operation to catch Hal Bonner. Bonner is a Cali assassin with a particularly brutal 'signature.' Since J.J. Fielding escaped with $463 million in drug money, Hal is hot on his trail; if--the FBI assumes--he can be persuaded that Hannah has found Fielding and the cash, he'll emerge from hiding to exact revenge. They lay a series of clues for Hannah to follow, beginning with a gruesomely annotated copy of her very first book that seems to be a direct message from her parents' killer. But as the 72 hours allotted to the plan unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that Hannah will not be led by breadcrumbs; she prefers making her own path.
For sheer presence and emotional depth, Hannah may not be on a par with Alexandra Rafferty, the Miami police photographer of Body Language, and the machinations of the FBI agents--mostly an unpleasant bunch who are wound tighter than the proverbial top--may seem so labyrinthine as to verge on the ridiculous. But Hall serves up a delicious pair of villains in Hal and Misty (who is stalking Hannah for her own purposes). The slow-thinking killer and the quick-talking Hooters girl are chillingly vicious and oddly funny; picture a Capra-esque screwball courtship conducted at the Bates Motel. --Kelly Flynn
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Rated by buyers 
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This story could have been much better.
For starters Hannah is not my favorite choice of for female heroine name. Brings to mind visions of char women from the 17th century. It's unflattering and doesn't seem to fit with someone who is attractive and talented. I apologize to anyone with that name. But it is just the very first thing about this book that is bad. The other choice of character names isn't much better.
Hal is a little hard to read. I seem to be unable to define him. Is he mentally challenged? Is he emotionally challenged? Is he just out of some institution?
I also had some problem with the connections between events. Hall goes on and on with unnecessary descriptions. I could care less what everyone at a meeting is wearing. It had nothing to do with furthering the plot. The descriptions could have been more succinct. Well, just too much detailed descriptions and many are just corny sounding.
It seems like Hall is trying to make a romance between Hannah and Frank. It's a huge leap, since they didn't seem to have anything going on in the beginning of the book. How after 5 years Frank has made no effort to contact Hannah. I didn't get the reason she would have turned to him with the book if they haven't had any contact in that many years. Hall is really stretching it to try and create some hot romance there. I found it kind of creepy that the so called romance is not anything happening or any conversation between Hannah and Frank but by thoughts or conversations of The FBI woman Helen or Hal.
It seemed strange to me that Hannah didn't have any friends. Most people form friendships, have girlfriends, people to pal around with. Being a single parent would seem to be more reason for Hannah to have formed friendships with other single women. She should have had friends from when she worked at the police department, or from when she was in college. I'm sorry but that's just too big a leap of credibility that she would be without a single girlfriend.
I also wondered why she was not having any kind of therapy herself. How could she miss that if her son needed it that she would too.
Overall I'd have to say this book is boring, the characters have no depth. It's over detailed on rubbish. But lacking in good information to connect events. For instance the involvement of the FBI seemed slim at best. The way Hal is described here and there. Gosh, all I can say is this book really was flat.
I need to add that I'm listening to the audio version and Sandra Burr is not the best reader. Not the worst either but the sing song tone of her voice is annoying. And she does lousy at male voices. I've had some trouble following the characters because she doesn't give each character their own voice. But the book is still verbose to the extreme.
This is Sassyvic saying don't waste your time with this book. Look for something better.
Rated by buyers -
This is my very first foray into a book by James W. Hall. I found it to be an entertaining read with a couple of really good plot twists. The original premise of the FBI sting seems so silly that I cannot imagine anybody would permit it, but once I got past that part it was a great spring break thriller.
While the villains were fairly interesting, I found myself really rooting for the underachieving FBI agent, Frank Sheffield.
I wonder about the source of Mr. Hall's fascination with Indiana. I'm a lifelong resident of the Hoosier state so I was interested in the fact that the main bad guy comes from Evansville (his bare description of Evansville, even though it is vague, tells me that he's never seen it). Also, his knowledge of Indiana geography seems a bit sketchy since he has the boy in the foster care system in Evansville yet committing crimes in Indianapolis. They are a good 2 1/2 to 3 hour drive apart. Plus, Hall mentions some overweight teachers from Fort Wayne in a bar trying to get lucky with some Cuban lotharios. Yes, my beloved Hoosier state, home to serial killers and desperate big girls...
Despite that, I give this book a final grade of B+.
Rated by buyers -
Hannah Keller, ex cop and Author is being used as bait by the FBI to catch serial killer Hal, who kills people by bursting their hearts with his bare hands. Agent Frank Sheffield, who is unwillingly recruited to help the FBI in their mission ends up antagonizing the rest of the FBI team and helping Hannah Keller. Inspite of unbelievable characters such as Hal and Stevie, a 13 year old computer whiz, the book is a thrilling read.
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Rated by buyers 
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I listened to the audiobook while driving to and from work. It was entertaining, to a certain extent. It was certainly well read.
Hal Bonner was almost like a robot, at least that's how he was read in the audiobook, talks like a robot, doesn't understand common idioms, and of course doesn't really know what love is or could be, not even sex, actually. That's possibly understandable, in the perspective of his foster-home-in-the-mortuary upbringing, but believable? Too far-fetched. But, hey, it's a novel, right? It's not supposed to be non-fiction.
Okay, so Helen's ex-husband (and Randall's father) has murdered his in-laws, and no one knows about it, except Randall, for how many years? And then the inept fool is caught in an obvious trap, confessing to his wired son in the Miami airport. Believable? No, it's too contrived, but hey, it's a novel, right?
The Senator pushing the FBI around? Well, that part is believable, I guess, I'll trust Mr. Hall on that one.
Misty Fielding? No, I don't believe a young woman, no matter how bitter, would kidnap and kill a little boy. And the business about doctoring the videotape using a 12-year old hacker, well, that's far-fetched, contrived, it doesn't fit nicely as a plot device should fit, if the author is a real master.
The only character I liked in this mess is Frank Sheffield, the FBI agent son of a heroic FBI agent, who appears to lack ambition and live in a sort of Taoist funk, which is precisely opposed to our idea of an FBI agent. Of course, he comes out on top in the end, just as Lao Tse said he would.
Diximus.
Rated by buyers -
First of all, despite what the header for this listing says, this is not a Thorn book; It's a stand-alone novel with new characters. Secondly, unlike Hall's Thorn books, Rough Draft just isn't very good. If you've read most of Hall's books like I have, you're probably beginning to feel like if you've read one, you've read them all. A fine writer in his early years, Hall has now gotten stale and boring. The plot for this book was fragmented and patched together, with a twist ending that just didn't work at all for me. The entire idea for this book seemed like a throwaway, something that Hall came up with at the last minute just to crank another book out. Reviewers make a big deal out of Hall's villians, and they are pretty interesting, but the female villian in this one is just like every other female villian that Hall creates, and the male villian needed more fleshing out to be truly classic. The good guys, however, are so plain and vanilla that I never cared one bit about them throughout the entire book. It was a struggle to get through this one, and I can't recommend it to anyone. For a good read, try one of Hall's earlier books instead.
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