I am back with another book review! I have been sticking to my resolution of making reading a priority and I am surprised by the negligible effort it has taken. Now I realize how incredibly lame my 15 books a year target was and 50 (that earlier seemed so daunting) would actually be doable. Given my dismal start to the year, it would be nothing short of a miracle if I can catch up but I sure am going to try 😊 And since I've decided to keep up with reading, I will be more prudent in the books I review on the blog, winnowing down to those I deem worthy of discussion.
This book review marks my first tryst with the literary works of Greg Iles. This author has been recommended to me by my husband. And knowing that Stephen King endorsed the work of Greg Iles is good enough reason for me to not waste any more time!
Novelist Greg Iles was born in Germany, where his father ran the US Embassy Medical Clinic during the height of the Cold War. He spent his youth in Natchez, Mississippi, and graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983. His first novel, Spandau Phoenix, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess, was published in 1992 and became a New York Times bestseller.
Mississippi has long been known for its prowess in prose. From Tennessee Williams to Eudora Welty, John Grisham to William Faulkner and now Greg Iles, the Magnolia State is home to a plethora of skilled writers.
The Quiet Game was first published in 1999 by Dutton in the United States. The novel introduces the main protagonist Penn Cage who goes on to feature in several more of Greg Iles books.
***Plot***
Set in the small town of Natchez, Mississippi, the novel begins on a sombre note with grieving widower Penn Cage trying to come to terms with the agonizing loss of his beloved wife Sarah. The prosecutor turned best-selling author returns to his hometown of Natchez for some much-needed solitude and to help lift the spirits of his four year old daughter Annie.
When Penn becomes privy to the fact that his father Dr Tom Cage, a model of rectitude, is being blackmailed over an unsavoury incident that took place in the past, he pulls out all the stops to put an end to it. In tracing the source of his father's disconcerting predicament, he unknowingly stirs up a 30 year old unsolved murder that took place in Natchez under mysterious circumstances. In reviving the controversial case, Penn more than ruffles a few feathers. The murder of black Korean War veteran Delano Payton had been masquerading as a race crime until then but new insights and unsubstantiated claims suggest otherwise with unexpectedly sinister implications. The more Penn tries to resist getting involved, the more he gets sucked in. Putting his own life and that of his family’s in jeopardy, the crusading lawyer campaigns for justice along with unlikely accomplice, hotshot publisher Caitlin Masters.
In the course of the investigation, Penn goes on the offensive and butts heads with Judge Leo Marston, who had been responsible for separating him from his high school sweetheart Olivia Marston and subsequently sought to destroy his father in an unfounded and rancorous malpractice suit. Stuck in the eye of a media storm, with politicians, the FBI and a homicidal former cop hot on his heels, Penn is in a race against time to nail the killers of Del Payton. But in a racially divided town where everyone is playing the “quiet game”, it is proving to be harder than he bargained for. And with witnesses turning up either dead or in grave danger, the evidence is steadily starting to slip away from his grasp. Penn has to confront his old demons and grapple with some unsettling truths before he can uncover his hometown's deepest darkest secret.
My thoughts....
Reading the work of an author for the first time, for me, is somewhat akin to making a new friend. It is novel, intriguing and feels like a wisp of fresh air.
