Mississippi Blood

First thing's first - If you haven't read any of the Penn Cage series, it's worth going back to the start, even before this trilogy, reading The Quiet Game and then working your way through; I promise you won't regret it.

Mississippi Blood is the concluding part of one of the most compelling trilogies I've come across. Penn Cage is the mayor of Natchez, Mississippi. He returned to his hometown after a successful career as an attorney and an author, but not everyone was glad to see him come home. He has his fair share of enemies, who would gladly see him, and his family brought to their knees.

Greg Iles does a masterful job of shuttling us between present day, and the harsher reality of life in 1960's Mississippi, complete with simmering racial tension, the KKK, and an ultra-radical splinter group known as the ‘Double-Eagles’, who still wield a frightening amount of power here and now. Penn's father, Doctor Tom Cage, is a pillar of the community, respected throughout. When he's accused of murder, secrets that have been hidden away for decades threaten to surface, and the Double-Eagles will stop at nothing to keep them hidden. It seems that Tom Cage has secrets of his own though, and time is running out for Penn to piece it all together before the ghosts of the past destroy all he's fought to build.

All in all, Mississippi Blood is an utterly enthralling story, expertly told, and cannot recommend highly enough.