Magic City

Based on real events and newly declassified documents, Magic City evokes a time in our nation's history when powerful men were willing to do whatever they thought necessary to achieve their goals. A simple black-and-white photograph taken during the 1964 Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston fight on Miami Beach may hold the key to a horrific, politically motivated crime forty-two years earlier. After it suddenly appears on display at a Miami gallery opening, the photograph is burned in an act of arson that sets off a modern-day murder spree, reaching from the quiet neighborhoods of Miami to the back corridors of the White House. What the killer didn't know is that there is one remaining copy. When it falls into sharp-witted, multi-talented Key Largo beach bum Thorn's hands, he and everyone he loves become the target of madmen and trained killers, each of whom has his own powerful motive to see the photograph destroyed forever and its mysteries kept hidden. To find retribution for the death of a loved one, Thorn joins forces with a dangerous enemy to solve a maddening puzzle. At its center are two families from very different worlds with their own dark secrets. But cover-ups have a way of disintegrating over time, especially when someone like Thorn is pounding on the door. Magic City is an epic crime thriller -- exposing the past of a city in a time capsule of a novel. James W. Hall is the author of thirteen novels, including Forests of the Night. He is a professor of literature and writing at Florida International University, and he divides his time between South Florida and the mountains of western North Carolina. Richard Allen is a four-time Audie Award nominee and the winner of two AudioFile Earphones Awards. His audiobooks include Hell to Pay and Futureland.