NATCHEZ BURNING by Greg Iles

Finished Su 11/11/18

This is the first book in the 'MISSISSIPPI BURNING' trilogy and I bought all three books late last month.

I've read a couple of other books by Iles and I wanted to read the entire trilogy. The central character in this book is Penn Cage and he was also in the 'stand-alone' novels that I've read.

Penn is a novelist, ex-lawyer, and former mayor of the town of Natchez where the story is set.

Dr. Tom Cage is Penn's father and this man is the epitome of 'the kindly, small-town physician'. A friend and hero to rich and poor, black and white.

The story revolves around a series of civil rights murders that happened in the late sixties and also Dr. Cage's relationship with a beautiful black nurse, Viola. She worked in Cage's office and he had a sexual affair with her, but she left the town in 1968 for Chicago.

Viola Turner was gang raped by klansman and told to never come back. She doesn't, and has a son who's father is one of the rapists. Dr. Tom also might be the father (he isn't).

A music store owner was murdered by the klan. This man would allow blacks and whites to sleep together in his store. For a 'mixed' couple even to be seen on the streets was a big deal and this man was really taking a risk to allow them to have sex in his store.

The young black man was having sex with a white girl who was the daughter of a prominent white man and klansman.

The owner and two young black men are murdered. A flamethrower was used in the commission of the killing.

Two other young black men are killed and their bodies are hidden in the swamp by 'the bone tree'. This is the title of another novel in the series.

'THE DOUBLE EAGLES' is a radical branch of the KKK that has been active in the town since the 60's. Prominent white men and hardcore white trash as in the group. One of the white members is a high ranking officer in the Louisiana state police.

Henry Sexton is a local reporter who has been gathering information about 'the Double Eagles' and the KKK for almost forty years.

Caitlin is Penn's girlfriend and she is also a reporter and she works with Sexton to 'get the story out'.

Lots of bombings, shootings, kidnappings, and violent mayhem occur.

It's a great read, but I devoted almost ten days to get through it- almost 800 pages of fairly dense prose.

From the book's page at Amazon-

"Raised in the southern splendor of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned all he knows of duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor has been accused of murdering the African American nurse with whom he worked in the dark days of the 1960s. Once a crusading prosecutor, Penn is determined to save his father, but Tom, stubbornly invoking doctor-patient privilege, refuses even to speak in his own defense.

Penn's quest for the truth sends him deep into his father's past, where a sexually charged secret lies. More chilling, this long-buried sin is only one thread in a conspiracy of greed and murder involving the vicious Double Eagles, an offshoot of the KKK controlled by some of the most powerful men in the state. Aided by a dedicated reporter privy to Natchez's oldest secrets and by his fiancée, Caitlin Masters, Penn uncovers a trail of corruption and brutality that places his family squarely in the Double Eagles' crosshairs.

With every step costing blood and faith, Penn is forced to confront the most wrenching dilemma of his life: Does a man of honor choose his father or the truth?"