In this second installment of a trilogy which began with Natchez Burning, Iles takes us deeper into the morass of racism, hatred, violence and corruption that lies underneath a thin veneer of southern gentility in Mississippi.  Penn Cage, who is now the mayor of Natchez and his girlfriend Caitlin, who is the editor of the Natchez newspaper, have been following leads trying to exculpate Penn’s father, Dr. Tom Cage , the city’s beloved doctor accused of murdering his long time friend and nurse, Viola Turner.  Penn is convinced that his father is being framed by the Double Egles, a vicious sect of the KKK, and had hoped that when their leader, Brody Royal, died that his father could be exonerated. But that did not happen and now his father is also accused of killing a police officer and has disappeared.  FBI Special Agent John Kaiser, warns Penn that the Double Eagles, far from being leaderless are in fact being led by Forest Knox, the chief of the state’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, giving him access to enormous resources and manpower to use for his own ends.

Penn now has to decide whether to pursue his efforts to expose Forest Knox and the corruption within the police themselves or to take the devil’s deal that Forest Knox has offered him. Meanwhile Caitlin has begun to get some traction in her investigation of two civil rights era murders in Natchez. As she pursues various leads she learns about the Bone Tree, a place of punishment used during the days of slavery and more recently as a place of punishment and death used by Forest Knox and the Double Eagles; a place that may have the answers to the civil rights era murders and shed light on Forest Knox’s interest in Dr. Tom Cage.  With the inevitable conflict that arises from pursuing different agendas,  Penn and Caitlin must reevaluate their relationship adding to the stress and uncertainty between them.

Iles is masterful at keeping the tension taut throughout this book, which at 804 pages is quite a feat! Both Caitlin and Penn have different goals which they are pursuing, but ultimately they both want the same thing: to find the truth. Iles is quite good and getting to the conflicted emotions they both have throughout even as they make choices that seem inimical to the others’ goals.  Iles also continues to develop the other characters. For example, Penn’s mother becomes more vivid in this book, contributing to a deeper understanding of Tom and Penn. Mostly however, this is a book about racism, and the ugliness and brutality that such a mindset exerts on everyone not just those who live in the south. It is a corrosive that permeates our whole society and as the news recently makes clear, we still have a long ways to go to heal those wounds.

Brenda’s Rating: **** (4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Ken. Keith and Marian

Book Study Worthy: Yes

Read in ebook format.