"Hall, in the company of Elmore Leonard, and Carl Hiassen, gives the Sunshine State the fictional crime stature of L.A. and New York City." Publishers Weekly"Highly original and entertaining." -- Elmore Leonard.Miami provides a potent setting for Hall's expertly spun crime thriller, a dark, often funny novel with a powerful kick. "A masterful page-turner." -- Miami Herald.“Add to this a historical subplot about one of Miami's first murders and another about a large chunk of downtown Miami that reverts back to the descendants of the original 19th-century settler.Exciting and fascinating as the story is, Hard Aground is also noteworthy for conveying a convincing sense of contemporary as well as historical Miami. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.”Library Journal"James Hall's writing is astringent, penetrating, and unfailing gripping long after you read the last page...The story and the characters crackle like lingering currents of electricity in your mind." Dean Koontz.Buried treasure. 450 years ago a treasure ship went down. In Miami, the heat hasn't let up yet...Hap Tyler windsurfs on Biscayne bay, hears voices, seduces young women, and lives on the edge of history in his family's old-money mansion amid Miami's pastel glitz. But while Hap stumbles around in the shadow of his more successful older brother, Daniel, a tangled web of deception and greed is being spun around him --a web that leads Daniel to his death. Trying to solve his brother's murder, Hap collides with a 450-year-old secret: the disappearance of $400 million in a sunken Spanish plunder. Daniel's upscale girlfriend is close to digging up the treasure, an avaricious senator has already tasted it, and a stone-cold killer will stop at nothing to bring it home. The century-old city of Miami is a town that murder built. One of its darkest secrets and greatest treasures is about to be exposed.
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