Big Finish

Edgar-winner Hall’s heart-pounding 14th Thorn novel (after 2013’s Going Dark) takes the hard-bitten Florida PI to Pine Haven, N.C., where Thorn’s newly discovered son, Flynn Moss, and his fellow Earth Liberation Front activists target a hog factory farm in an “action” that goes awry. Shortly after, Thorn receives the latest in a series of postcards from Flynn, dropped anonymously at the office of his PI friend, Sugarman, and bearing only two words: “Help Me.” The rescue attempt mounted by the pair soon becomes complicated as Sugar’s girlfriend, Tina Gathercole, and an FBI agent, Madeline Cruz, attach themselves to the effort. Meanwhile, murderous ex-con X-88 and his girlfriend, Pixie, descend on Pine Haven with evil intent. Hall keeps the tension mounting as motives and alliances shift with the foul-scented wind. Even as violence looms, Hall’s talent for description adds a balancing, poetical note. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Dec.)