Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 10/17/2016 + 1223 more book reviews

Excellent suspense/thriller from Iles. This is only the second book I have read by Iles (the first was True Evil) but I have several more on my TBR shelf that hopefully won't be there long! This is actually the first book in a series featuring Penn Cage, a lawyer/writer who returns to his hometown, Natchez, Mississippi, with his young daughter to try to relax and forget after his wife dies. But returning to Natchez is anything but peaceful. He soon gets embroiled in trying to solve a decades old hate crime where a young black Korean war veteran was killed in a car bomb back in the sixties. The case involves one of the wealthiest families in town, the Marstons, including Penn's high school lover, Olivia Marston, who has also returned to Natchez after separating from her husband. Many ghosts from the past are uncovered as Penn prepares to uncover secrets long buried. But are things really what they seem? Was the murder of the young black man a hate crime or was there another motive? And why did Olivia abandon Penn and leave Natchez shortly after high school?

The novel was engrossing and was hard to put down with its themes of racial injustice in the South and the hypocrisy of the rich and the government in dealing with civil rights issues of the 60s. The novel also was great in its descriptions of Natchez, the "jewel of the antebellum South," including both the privileged and not so privileged denizens of the city.

Overall, I would give this one a very high recommendation and I will definitely be reading more Iles sooner than later.

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