If you were in high school or college during the 60’s, if
you got wrapped up in the civil rights movement, and if you were shocked by the
assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK, then this is a book for you. This is the 4th
book in the Penn Cage series by Greg Iles, and this is the best one yet. Cage
has moved on from being a prosecuting attorney in Houston and a successful
crime novelist, and he has returned to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi
where he has become the mayor. Politics are not his forte, but he really wants
to help the town fully integrate and revitalize, goals that many think are
mutually exclusive.
On his way to becoming the mayor, Cage made enemies of the
black DA Shadrack Johnson and the white Chief of Police Billy Bird, and now a
bizarre murder occurs. Cage’s dad is a beloved physician to whites and blacks.
His former chief nurse, the beautiful Viola Turner, returned to town after 37
years away. She has metastatic cancer and has come home to die and have Dr.
Cage watch after her. But, we learn that her disappearance from Natchez 37 years
ago was fraught with intrigue, and her return has stirred up some very old and
ugly racial hatreds which touch rich and poor, white and black. With her death
from natural causes only a short time away, she is murdered. Did Tom Cage
euthanize her or did a radical white supremist shut her up. What about the
relationship that Dr. Cage had with her – could they have been lovers and
produced an offspring? In order to understand the current day murder of Viola,
some old racial murders must be solved.
Iles used his usual cast of Cage, Cage’s dad and mom, his
daughter, and his finance, the hard charging newspaper reporter/publisher,
Caitlin Masters. It’s not a short read, nearly 800 pages, and I could not put
it down. There are lots of characters, but that’s not a deterrent – Iles does a
great job with character development and I did not find myself confused about
who was who. The ending scene is a dramatic battle that could have gone in any
number of directions, but the author brought this to a satisfactory conclusion,
which also set up the next story which I’ve already acquired. Greg Iles is the
real deal – historical fiction and crime novel rolled into one great story.
Wow! I hadn't read an 800 page book since Tom Clancy's thrillers in the early 90's. In this book, I was particularly impressed with how the author kept the characters all straight for the reader. He inserted little refreshers in the text as the chapters transitioned from one plot line to another... very helpful and seldom redundant. Also, Iles cleverly left a couple issues unresolved, enticing the reader to the next installment... can't wait.
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