Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger - Thriller of the Year 2014.
The first in a new series featuring attorney turned writer Penn Cage who Iles first introduced in The Quiet Game, though you don’t need to have read it or anything else by Iles to be completely engaged by Natchez Burning. A long but truly gripping thriller that pulls no punches as it delves back into Mississippi’s deep rooted racial divides as Cage must uncover dark secrets from the Sixties and face up to some troubling truths if he’s to clear his father of the murder he’s accused of. Iles was born and lives in Natchez and this is a brilliantly detailed and paced tour de force.
'Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful' (Stephen King). The stunning new Penn Cage thriller in which a shocking murder from the 1960s finds new life - and victims - in the present. Penn Cage is facing a son's worst nightmare - having his father stand accused of murder. Worse, each effort to defend the legendary Dr Tom Cage unearths new, shocking secrets, leaving Penn to question whether he ever really knew his father at all. At issue is the murder of Viola Turner, once Tom Cage's nurse, before being transferred to Chicago, now back in Natchez and a corpse in her sister's house. What was the relationship between Tom, Viola, and the 'Double Eagle Club', an ultra-violent group of hardened men who considered themselves smarter, tougher, and more elite than their peers in the FBI-infiltrated Ku Klux Klan? In Natchez, where the past is never truly 'past', long-buried secrets turn lethal when exposed to the light of day. For Penn Cage, the cost of solving this case will be no exception.
Praise for NATCHEZ BURNING: 'Often seen as a John Grisham imitator, Iles clearly outperforms the master of the Deep South thriller in this angry yet engrossing novel Sunday Times
'Extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down ...This is an amazing work of popular fiction' STEPHEN KING
'I don't know how Iles did it, but every single one of the 700+ pages of NATCHEZ BURNING is a cliffhanger that will keep you devouring just one more chapter before you put it down to eat, work, or go to bed. A mystery rooted in the real-life racial divides of the Deep South, this ambitious, unique novel is the perfect marriage of a history lesson and a thriller. Greg? You owe me some sleep!' JODI PICOULT
'Natchez Burning is just flat-out terrific, written with all the fire of its title. With its scope and passion and its themes about race, violence, tradition, and the eternal smouldering anger of the South, it brings to mind Thomas Wolfe and William Faulkner, even while its cagey plot and restless energy keeps you flying through the pages. Greg Iles is back and truly better than ever' SCOTT TUROW Praise for previous Greg Iles novels:
'A scorching read' John Grisham
'A rarity. A thriller that really thrills' Stephen King
'An incredible web of intrigue and suspense' Clive Cussler
'My favourite kind of novel ... Ambitious in its scope and superbly satisfying in its execution' Dan Brown
'Iles is a great thriller writer' Independent
Author
About Greg Iles
Greg Iles is the internationally bestselling author of eleven highly acclaimed thrillers, including Dark Matter and Blood Memory. He lives with his family in Natchez Mississippi, USA.
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