Greg Iles writes with passion and intensity, which is why I like him so much. After his block buster Natchez Burning trilogy this much anticipated stand alone novel cements Iles’ standing as a great Southern writer, who much like Pat Conroy, is not afraid to reveal the South’s ruthlessness and corruption behind its facade of gentility and good manners.

At the end of Cemetery Road is a statue, high on the bluff, overlooking the river. That statue is one of the reasons Marshall McEwan swore he would never return to Beinville, Mississippi, for it is a memorial to his brother, the one his father blames Marshall for killing. But now his father is dying, and Marshall, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist in Washington, DC, must return home to help his mother and run the family newspaper.

What Marshall had not anticipated was how much had changed in Bienville since he left. The newspaper, once a thriving institution, is failing, the girl he loved so desperately in his youth is now married to one of the richest and most powerful families in Bienville, and the town itself is on life support -barely hanging on until the contract for the new paper mill owned by a Chinese conglomerate is signed. Bienville, once a thriving town while Marshall was growing up, is suffering from crime, rampant drug use and sky rocketing unemployment. For all these reasons the whole town seems to be holding its breath until the contract with paper mill is signed.

Then an archaeologist and an indigenous peoples advocate is found dead near the site of the paper mill and Marshall receives an anonymous tip that seems to point to murder. Marshall, with the help of his former girlfriend, Jet, begins investigating when another murder occurs. As they uncover the facts behind the two murders, Marshall soon realizes that the real power behind the city, The Poker Club of which Jet’s father in law is the leader, is more corrupt and ruthless then he ever realized and they can act with impunity since  the source of their power comes all the way from the top in Washington, DC.  Undeterred, Marshall persists in uncovering the truth, while trying to deny the lies right in front of him and the danger that stalks him under a mask of southern hospitality and gentility.

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

Recommend this book to: Marian, Sharon and Keith

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in Library ebook  format.