The Bone Tree by Greg Iles

The Bone Tree is Greg Iles second book in what promises to be a trilogy that began with Natchez Burning.  Protagonist Penn Cage is a former Houston D.A. turned best-selling author turned mayor of Natchez, MS, his hometown.  His father, Tom Cage is an aging but beloved physician who is accused of euthanizing his former nurse, Viola.  Penn’s motivation to protect his father leads him to uncover sins from Natchez’ past that involve infidelity, child abuse, rape, racism, drug dealing, political corruption and murder.  Penn finds that the evil core that erupted in Natchez in the 1960’s by a white supremacy terrorist group, Double Eagles and the vile Knox family extended far beyond Mississippi.  The Double Eagles were formed from the dregs of the KKK to eliminate John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy and after discovering ties to a mafia don in New Orleans with a connection to Cuba, Penn is shocked at the role the Double Eagles could have played… not to mention, however inadvertently, the role his father played.

But others have ‘skin in the game’ concerning Penn’s father.  Viola had fled Natchez to Chicago many years earlier to avoid the Knox family after they raped and threatened to kill her.  Soon after arriving in Chicago she gave birth to a son, Lincoln.  Recently when Viola is diagnosed with cancer, she returns to Natchez to be under Doc Cage’s care.  Lincoln follows believing the old doctor is his father.  Forrest Knox, son of a Double Eagle founder, is now near the top in command of the Louisiana state police and has used/abused his power to murder poor Blacks escaping New Orleans after the Katrina hurricane and operates a meth distribution system throughout Louisiana.  He was involved with the rape of Viola many years ago and sees her and Tom as a threat to his new found political power.  Caitlin Masters, Penn’s fiancé and ace newspaper reporter in Natchez is all about publishing the truth about the Double Eagles and their more than half century old murderous civil rights crime spree that has yet to be proven or prosecuted. Then there is FBI agent John Kaiser who believes the Knox’s were involved in John F. Kennedy’s assassination.  He thinks Tom Cage through his 1960’s medical treatment of the Knox’s and Carlos Marcello, the New Orleans mafia don, can offer evidence to prove his conspiracy theory.

So we have many characters on both sides with strong motivation to uncover the truth and/or keep it buried.  All have varying and conflicting degrees of righteousness, power, morals, and desperation.  It all leads to a long, complex, spell binding tale that Iles tells masterfully.