Natchez Burning: A Novel (Penn Cage)

When I first began reading Natchez Burning by Greg Iles, I didn’t think I would like it at all. I thought it was too Grisham, too formulaic and way too brutal for my tastes. A white knight lawyer in a Mississippi town, beautiful journalist girlfriend, dark family secrets, and a local boy crusading to right wrongs everyone else wanted to forget. This book had it all including descriptions of torture and cruelty that stayed with me like a bad smell. I stuck with it though and by Chapter 4 I was hooked. Forget Grisham, Iles takes you on the ride of your life. Set in modern day Natchez, Mississippi and Ferriday, Louisiana the book deals with the issue of holding aging white supremacists accountable for past crimes as well as the continuing racial tensions that still exist like an heirloom handed down from generation to generation. At its core is evil so dark and frightening, I had to finish the book in one night to get the main characters out of the climactic jam they had gotten themselves into. While some of the situations seemed a little farfetched to me; old ladies packing guns, characters making implausible choices; I was captivated by the plot and its twists and turns. A word of warning: this book contains graphic and vivid descriptions of the extremes of human cruelty and violence. Greg Iles skill in writing mystery/thrillers shines through in the characters, the plot twists and the historical accuracy. Natchez Burning is a book you won’t want to put down until it screeches to a halt and leaves you breathless.