Greg IlesRecensioner

Great book

I am a fan of Greg Iles and a fan of Penn Cage. This book didn't disappoint. I have read others, completely out of order, and I have to say, every book, I can pick up and don't feel I missed a lot having not read them in order. That said, glad to have read book 1.
Penn Cage is a larger than life character, seeking justice with determination that seems daunting. To me, he is a character you can admire. I love how the author delves into the true heart of what was going on in the 60's and even today.
There is a lot of action in this book. A great read.

Somewhere out there, right now, the NSA, the CIA and a top secret group of quantum physicists are trying to build a computer that can hold a human soul and talk to God. At least, that's the premise of Greg Iles' The Footprints of God. It's not as kooky as it sounds. Pursued by the NSA and the military, with only his psychiatrist to help, a professor must prove his sanity and unravel the mystery of his complicated nightmares, a side-effect of his work, all while trying to stop a supercomputer with a God complex from destroying the planet. Similar in theme to Dan Brown's work, yet better written, this novel tackles issues of religion and modern science with a fast-moving, engaging plot.½

For my first book by Iles, this was a good choice. The first few chapters were good enough to make me want to keep going. From there, the plot thickens, but never gels....at least not to me. I'm not sure what Iles was trying to accomplish (other than to create a villain in the image of the wicked Hannibal), but it didn't work for me. The ending was too drawn out and gave the heroine almost superhuman skills, intelligence and strength to save herself. Besides, I quickly caught on to who the bad guy was.

Thriller

Crime

This is the most detailed book describing what happens when your past catches up to you. I had not read any of Greg Iles' Penn Cage books before, and I wish I had started with the first three before beginning "Natchez Burning" and then "The Bone Tree." However, I may have just enough time to go back and read them before March 21, when "Mississippi Blood" comes out! You do not need to have read the first three, I think, because those books are summarized in these two, and probably the last book. I can't wait to read the last installment!

(2005)Very good story of a forensic dentist who is trying to sort thru recovered memories of her abuse be either her father or grandfather at the same time as trying to help solve serial murders of abusers.(PW) Iles's previous thriller, 2003's provocative The Footprints of God, featured an omnipotent supercomputer and an on-the-run duo racing around the globe from North Carolina to Jerusalem. This time, Iles returns to more familiar ground: Natchez, Miss.; New Orleans; and the Mississippi delta, where a serial predator has been killing middle-aged men. Forensic odontologist Cat Ferry, an expert on teeth and the damage they can inflict, is called in by the New Orleans PD to explain the bite marks found on the bodies. Cat, the alcoholic granddaughter of Dr. William Kirkland, owner of the sprawling Malmaison estate and the richest, most powerful man in Natchez, has solved previous murders with her married detective lover, Sean Regan. This time, though, she's pregnant with Sean's baby, and this plus the discovery of old bloody footprints hidden in the carpet fibers of her Malmaison childhood bedroom threaten to plummet her into the depression that's plagued her since she was 15. She thinks one footprint might be hers, made on the night her father died of an ill-explained gunshot wound. Iles weaves in dark strains of child sexual abuse and the resulting repressed memories as Cat searches for the serial killer and for answers about her father's death. This overlong novel lacks the scintillating originality that made Iles's last outing so memorable, but he ties up all the loose ends in an exciting climax.

(2006)Very good thriller that involves an FBI agent who is pursuing a series of cancer deaths that she thinks have been caused by a murderer. No one believes her and the FBI wants her to drop the investigation or be fired. Publishers Weekly ReviewStarred Review. Smooth prose, psychological depth and crafty plotting lift bestseller Iles's latest suspense thriller, which puts a fresh twist on a familiar theme-the cat-and-mouse game between an FBI agent and a fiendishly-clever serial killer. One personal tragedy after another has struck Alexandra Morse, a rising star in the FBI who specializes in hostage negotiation: her father's shooting death in a robbery, her mother's diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer, and a misstep on the job that left her face scarred and a fellow agent dead. Now Alex's sister, Grace, lies dying in a Jackson, Miss., hospital after suffering a stroke. Alex arrives from Washington just in time to hear Grace say that her husband has murdered her. After Grace's death, Alex learns that Dr. Eldon Tarver, a brilliant scientist in need of funds for research into developing a biological superweapon, has teamed with a Mississippi divorce attorney who offers select clients the opportunity to avoid a protracted court fight by arranging for their spouses to die. When Alex identifies the next intended victim, Dr. Chris Shepard, she goes undercover as one of the idealistic doctor's patients and soon finds herself in a race against Tarver as well as her own superiors, who have not sanctioned her investigation. This pulse-pounder is sure to be another bestseller for Iles (Turning Angel). Booklist ReviewThe new novel by the author of, among others, Mortal Fear (1996), 24 Hours (2000), and (most recently) Turning Angel (2005)begins with a big surprise. Dr. Chris Shepard, a doctor in Natchez, Mississippi (where the author lives), is visited by an FBI agent who tells him two things: a local divorce lawyer has a series of clients whose spouses have all died suspiciously, and Dr. Shepard's wife paid this lawyer a visit about a week ago. Now agent Alex Morse wants Dr. Shepard to help her trap a killer. If Iles has a trademark, a single literary feature that identifies him, it's his intriguing, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-situations premises that hook readers immediately, forcing us to read on. How will Chris Shepard, a successful doctor in a seemingly happy marriage, react to the news that his wife may be planning to have him killed? Will Alex Morse, the deeply troubled FBI agent (she's still recovering from her own brush with death), confuse professional responsibility with personal interest? Before you know it, you've reached the last page, and you're all out of breath--but you've had one hell of a ride. Plot-driven is too often used as a pejorative term; Iles shows the other side. DavidPitt.

(2001)Very good thriller about a woman photographer who pursues the meaning behind ?The Sleeping Women? series of paintings that show dead women posed in living poses. Her sister is one of the subjects. From Publishers WeeklyIles continues to amaze with his incredible range, this time around crafting a complex serial killer novel with the intimacy of a smalltown cozy and the punch of a techno-thriller. As different from Spandau Phoenix and 24 Hours as possible, it scores with surefooted plotting, a diverse cast of characters and perfectly calibrated suspense. An anonymous painter's series of candidly posed nudes called The Sleeping Woman bursts on the art scene, each painting selling in the million-dollar range overnight amid rumors that the models are not sleeping but dead. Beautiful, burned-out war photographer Jordan Glass chances into a show and recognizes the subject of a painting as her identical twin, Jane, who was kidnapped near her New Orleans home and never found. Jordan contacts the FBI agent who handled her sister's case, thereby setting in motion a hunt that ties the paintings to the disappearance of at least 11 New Orleans women. Persuading the FBI task force to add her to the team, Jordan tags along to Tulane University, where evidence points to art department head Roger Wheaton, who has a peculiar terminal illness, and his brilliant but disturbed graduate students. Meanwhile, Jordan falls for damaged FBI agent John Kaiser, and together they link her sister's case to a French expat art collector from Vietnam who knew Jordan's war photographer father who disappeared in Cambodia. Are all the women really dead? Is Jordan's father alive and involved? Is there more than one killer? Iles keeps the reader guessing right up to the double surprise ending, delivering the perfect final payoff his readers expect.

(2003)A pretty good sci-fi thriller about a AI computer that is loaded with the equivalent of a person's mind and soul. It then goes rogue and tries to destroy the world.Iles, author of eight best-sellers, takes the standard paranoid thriller starring an endangered man and the woman who believes he's delusional until a series of shocks forces her to accept the too-strange-to-believe truth--and makes it run like Mussolini's trains. Everything arrives on time, as expected: boy is involved in scientific experiment; boy loses parts of mind; boy meets girl; boy runs away with girl after coworkers sniff out his suspicions and decide to snuff out his life. In this case, physician and ethicist Dr. David Tennant has spent the last few years of his life working on government-funded, hush-hush Project Trinity, which strives to build a supercomputer by liberating human intelligence from the human body. As the project progresses, Tennant's ethical concerns increase, especially when Trinity team members begin to develop neurological disorders. Once Tennant has sought psychiatric help, his psychiatrist (naturally, a beautiful woman) is drawn into the guessing game of whether Tennant is paranoid or insightful. With the murder of Tennant's closest colleague, and Tennant's inability to cover his disillusionment with the project, the game is afoot, as the government bears down on our hero and his psychiatrist friend. Cardboard characters and a mostly predictable plot, but Iles, a consummate storyteller, keeps suspense and blood pressure high. Connie FletcherCopyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved

***** MINOR SPOILERS *****

I enjoyed this book immensely.....so much so that I've ordered the other books in the series. Penn Cage is definitely a character that I'm interested in reading more of.

My one and only criticism is the unbelievability in regards to some of the relationships. I don't have the big issue with Dr. Elliotts and Kates relationships that some of the other reviewers do.....its reality....it happens.
Ok, then you have a coach also sleeping with a teen.... not unheard of.....although, being in the same community as Dr Elliot makes it a bit of a tough sale.
But now we're supposed to believe that Penn...who has a young daughter....lost his wife a few years back.....and currently in a relationship with a woman he's supposedly crazy about....also falling for a high school senior?? It seems as though Greg Iles may have a teen girl fetish.

All in all, it was a good book and I'm looking forward to reading the series.

Blood Memory, my ninth read from author Greg Iles. An enjoyable, 18-hour, 49-minute read/listen. I have to say that the author packs a lot into the pages of his work. Well-developed characters and plot developed over the lengthy novel. Joyce Bean’s narration adds to the book's enjoyment. I'll be reading more from this author as I'm trying to get all of his books on audio as discretionary income permits in this new, COVID normal.. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).

I found this book a really fun, fast read. While some of Mr. Iles' dialogue and characters may be stereotypical, and possibly express facile sentiment or emotion, overall the story is strong and well-done. Enjoyable!

Well written -- often disturbing!

Enjoyable, but a bit more uneven than Iles' other books

What a book! real delight

Lies, cruelty, and murder are in us all—this is the lesson of this nail-biting Penn Cage novel—the third in the series. Two years after Penn becomes the mayor of his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, he's ready to throw in the towel. The changes he wanted to make to improve the school system failed due to prejudices deeply rooted in the South. Shad Johnson, the DA in town, is still a formidable adversary, and Caitlin is gone. Then, a secret meeting with Tim Jessup, an old friend making allegations of chilling crimes being committed up and down the river, changes everything. After Tim's brutal murder, Penn's family is threatened, and the story explodes into a kill-or-be-killed struggle with international thugs protected by the government. I couldn't put this book down once I started reading. The Devil's Punchbowl is the most suspenseful and exciting Penn Cage novel Mr. Iles has written. The villains in this book are sadistic, evil monsters. Beware that some cruel and despicable acts they commit on humans and animals are hard to read.

"Natchez is unlike anyplace in America existing almost outside time, which is exactly what Annie and I need."

It's shortly after his wife died of cancer and attorney and best-selling author Penn Cage's young daughter Annie is grieving. He decides to return to his hometown Natchez where his mother and father might help his daughter through the process. Days after he arrives back in town, he's embroiled in a Civil Rights Era murder mystery, not to mention helping his father who's being blackmailed.

There are a lot of things that annoyed/angered me about this book. First of all, Penn moved back to Natchez for Annie, then immediately abandons her to his parents. He's chasing around town solving crimes (and having plenty of time for flirtation with a pretty reporter), moaning about wanting to protect his daughter, but basically ignoring her. And he has way too many close calls.

Then there's the legal stuff. Not that I was any great shakes as an attorney, and I will admit that the inaccurate way in which trials/legal issues are presented in novels is a pet peeve of mine, but the legal matters as described in this novel are so far out there, so removed from reality that I couldn't stand it. Almost nothing in the way the legal matters are described in this book could have occurred in real life.

Worst of all there is the paternalistic attitude against Blacks that permeates this book. I understand that it's set in a small Southern town, and maybe it could be said that this is the attitude that many of white denizens would have. But it also seems to be the attitude of those in the book who are supposed to be the "good guys," (i.e. Penn and his parents). Beyond that, the characters are all pretty much cliches.

This is not a series I will continue.

1 1/2 stars½

An event made frightening by characters made real.
Attention to detail made the characters seem real making the horror of the experience all the more terrifying. The medical details were surprisingly accurate. Not sure where Iles got his medical info but very well portrayed. THe human frailties of everyone made them more believable. A kidnapping for ransom and for revenge. Much excitement and scariness.

A twisty thriller. Written in 1990s the computer aspects which underlie the story are dated but stilll work.
The male protagonist is a synopsis for a computer service called Eros where people go for virtual sexual experiences with others. He discovers several of the women clients have been murdered and reports that triggering a man hunt for the killer. It comes to involve him, his wife and his wife’s sister. The villan is a brilliant, clearly evil man. He provokes the mortal fear of the title. He is trying to perform pineal transplants to reverse aging. Set in Mississippi it truly brings mortal fear to many characters. The climax is cleverly plotted. The author demonstrates a lot of computer technical knowledge and medical knowledge incorporating it smoothly into the plot. Weird to bring Kleinfelter’s syndrome into a thriller.

FBI agent believes there is a group murdering the spouses of the wealthy to help avoid the cost of divorce. She tells Dr. Chris Shepard he is next. Together they work to expose the truth. Very exciting.
When talking about cancer specialist the book mentions M. D. Anderson, I had just heard about them listening to Anti -MLM videos about Jesse Lee Ward.
Dr. Tarver has a negative view of animal rights activists. He reflects that "Your animal rights fanatics weren't like Jehovah's Witnesses, who would lie there and die within ten feet of a bag of blood that could save them. ---Jehovah's Witnesses had been some of the toughest resisters to Nazi tyranny, Eldon knew, especially in the death camps. He figured the average animal rights activist would have lasted about three days at Auschwitz."

Penn Cage has grown up in Natchez, Mississippi. He is definitely his father's son. His father is Tom Cage, a beloved doctor. Dr. Cage has been accused of killing Viola Turner, his black nurse that worked with him in the 1960's. Penn is determined to defend his father, as he is an attorney and the town's mayor.
The quest to find the answer is laden with many layers and leads Penn on a horrific journey into the mind of a real madman, who seems to decide whether your life is worth living in his mind only.

This book was layer upon layer of history. Good read.

Many authors have written novels dealing with wide spread corruption in southern politics. Some of the most notable, such as,John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, and of course, William Faulkner are members of an elite group of such authors. This is the first novel I've read by Greg Iles, and after having done so, I'd argue he belongs amongst these elite writers. First of all by taking the corruption all the way to the top ! Right up to the assassination of J.F.K. and even giving Fidel Castro a cameo appearance. But what struck me most about Iles's writing was the depth and complexity of the characters. The book spanned more than 800 pages but covered only a time span of 4 days. Everyone of these scenes added to the suspense time and again. But of course even after 800 pages the reader is left with a cliff hanger. Looking forward to the sequel.

My first impression of this book was that it was a real "guy" book. Mostly because of the detailed descriptions of the female characters' sexy clothes and moist lips. However, that type of bias aside, this is actually a pretty gripping read. There is some difficult language-- it takes place in Mississippi and concerns a race murder that took place in the '60s, so there is liberal use of the N-word-- but it is not gratuitous. The complex story deals with the history of civil rights, the grief over the death of a spouse, and regret after the abrupt end of a teenage romance. And all of this emotional back story is interspersed with a lawsuit and the lead-up to a trial, including an investigation dogged with danger and violence. It is characterized as a thriller, and I suppose there are elements of that, but it felt like the whole narrative was geared toward a conclusion in which the good guys would prevail, despite the many obstacles that are placed in their path, so it never felt too scary. Good read.