Sometimes a really good book is sitting in front of you for years
and you don't know it, until one day you are looking for something to read and you find it. That is how I discovered
Greg Iles, a best selling author of 15 novels with one on the way. My wife has read a number of books by Greg Iles
over the years and a few of them were sitting on one of our book cases in my man cave, along with many other books
in our joint collection. I knew they were there but I had never even considered reading them because my wife and I tend
to read very different books. I have reading non-fiction almost exclusively for many years and I have returned
to reading novels only within the past year or so. I assumed these books that she bought wouldn't appeal to me.
I was wrong!
Greg Iles has written six
Penn Cage novels. The first five have been published in hardback and paperback. Iles has finished writing the
sixth book. I believe the hardback publication date for number six is set for 2017. I read
the first four of the Penn Cage novels in the order they were published and my wife and I have number five in backlog
for reading during our travels later this year. The six Penn Cage novels are:
1. The Quiet Game
2. Turning
Angel
3. The Devil's Punchbowl
4. Natchez Burning
5. The Bone Tree
6. Mississippi Blood (to be published)
The first three books are independent of each other, but share key characters whose interrelationships build
upon those established in the prior books. The author has created tremendous characters, Penn Cage (lawyer, former prosecutor
and novelist), Caitlin Masters (newspaper publisher and Cage's significant other) and more. The residual racial
issues of the 1960s civil rights era are part of the background of each novel.
Books four to six are described as the Natchez Burning Trilogy,
one continuing story that takes three novels to tell. Penn Cage and his family are from Natchez, Mississippi and these
three books deal with characters that connect the civil rights era to late 2005, the time period set in the three novels, "an epic trilogy that
interweaves crimes, lies, and secrets past and present". The characters established in the first three novels
continue to evolve in the Natchez Burning Trilogy. I have only read Natchez Burning so far but I am
definitely looking forward to reading The Bone Tree later this year and Mississippi Blood in 2017.
In addition to the the Penn Cage novels, Iles
has written ten other books. We have several of them in our library. I have read one so far, The Footprints
of God. It was very good. It is described as "a cutting-edge thriller in which the next phase of human
evolution may not be human at all." If you like science and technology and philosophy mixed with action this book
is for you.
I am not sure what I will
be reading next. However, if you are looking for some summer reading material - check out the books by Greg Iles.
TPM
