Mississippi Blood

Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles
HarperCollins: 3/21/17
advanced reader's edition; 704 pages
ISBN-13: 9780062311153
Natchez Burning Series #3

Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles is an amazing, incredible, extraordinary, stunning literary achievement of nail-biting suspense and breathtaking drama. It is the very highly recommended conclusion of the phenomenal epic Natchez Burning trilogy that explores how sins of the past haunt the present. The series includes Natchez Burning, The Bone Tree and Mississippi Blood. This conclusion to the impressive dramatic series is a contender for my top ten books of the year.

"[W]here good people stand against evil, sooner or later fate demands a reckoning."
Set in Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage and his family are under constant guard and it appears that their lives are not only under a constant threat but that everything is collapsing around them as they as they prepare themselves for the murder trial of his father, Dr. Tom Cage. Despite the fact that Penn was a lawyer, his father has chosen to keep him guessing about the defense strategy. Dr. Cage is on trial for murdering his former African-American nurse, Viola Turner, who worked for him in the 1960's. Tom Gage had an affair with Viola and fathered a child. Viola was suffering from terminal cancer and came home to Mississippi to die, asking Tom Cage to help her. It is their child, Lincoln Turner, who sets into motion the murder case.

Penn is in a battle for his father's life and his family's safety, while trying to uncover witnesses who can help Tom by testifying about the activities of the Double Eagles. Now headed by Snake Knox, the notorious and murderous Double Eagles, a splinter KKK group, still have a few loyal followers around. Once you are a double Eagle, you are in it for life. To talk and betray your brothers means death, which has been proven time and time again. The nefarious deeds of the Double Eagles are a huge part of the secrets from the past that haunt Viola and Tom and threaten the safety of Penn's family still. Snake has recruited the VK, a motorcycle gang, to assist him.

The courtroom scenes are simple excellent and provide some of the finest scenes of drama and suspense I've read in quite awhile. There are several twists and reveals that are heart-stopping and had me racing through to the next scene... and the next... and the next. Let me just admit that I stayed up way-too-late over several nights compulsively reading Mississippi Blood right up to the concluding epilogue. This is sure to be a classic series.

The writing is excellent. The character development is excellent. Allow me just reiterate what I said about the first book in this stunning trilogy, Natchez Burning as it hold true for Mississippi Blood: "This is an excellent book on all points: great writing, check; intricate plot twists, check; complexity, check; well-developed characters, check; suspense, check, check, check. Forget my stuck-overnight-at-the-airport book rating. You'd miss them calling your next flight. In fact, just save yourself the trouble and postpone your trip to finish Natchez Burning and jump right into The Bone Tree. Greg Iles just made another fan." Read this series ASAP.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins

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