Cemetery Road - Softcover

Iles, Greg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062824627 ISBN 13: 9780062824622

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 2019

Synopsis

Sometimes the price of justice is a good man's soul.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy returns with an electrifying tale of friendship, betrayal, and shattering secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town.

"An ambitious stand-alone thriller that is both an absorbing crime story and an in-depth exploration of grief, betrayal and corruption... Iles's latest calls to mind the late, great Southern novelist Pat Conroy. Like Conroy, Iles writes with passion, intensity and absolute commitment."
-- Washington Post

When Marshall McEwan left his Mississippi hometown at eighteen, he vowed never to return. The trauma that drove him away spurred him to become one of the most successful journalists in Washington, DC. But as the ascendancy of a chaotic administration lifts him from print fame to television stardom, Marshall discovers that his father is terminally ill, and he must return home to face the unfinished business of his past.

On arrival, he finds Bienville, Mississippi very much changed. His family's 150-year-old newspaper is failing; and Jet Talal, the love of his youth, has married into the family of Max Matheson, one of a dozen powerful patriarchs who rule the town through the exclusive Bienville Poker Club. To Marshall's surprise, the Poker Club has taken a town on the brink of extinction and offered it salvation, in the form of a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. But on the verge of the deal being consummated, two murders rock Bienville to its core, threatening far more than the city's economic future.

An experienced journalist, Marshall has seen firsthand how the corrosive power of money and politics can sabotage investigations. Joining forces with his former lover--who through her husband has access to the secrets of the Poker Club--Marshall begins digging for the truth behind those murders. But he and Jet soon discover that the soil of Mississippi is a minefield where explosive secrets can destroy far more than injustice. The South is a land where everyone hides truths: of blood and children, of love and shame, of hate and murder--of damnation and redemption. The Poker Club's secret reaches all the way to Washington, D.C., and could shake the foundations of the U.S. Senate. But by the time Marshall grasps the long-buried truth about his own history, he would give almost anything not to have to face it.

About this title

Review

"Natchez Burning is extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down; as long as it is, I wished it were longer.... This is an amazing work of popular fiction."--Stephen King

"Iles carries it off with style, intelligence and passion...The Bone Tree' is filled with menace, betrayal, [and] unexpected plot twists. . . [and] is a very American epic-in-progress that leaves us waiting, none too patiently, for whatever revelations are still to come."--Washington Post

"Absolutely compelling.... A beautifully constructed story [and] some extremely fine writing."--Booklist (starred review) on The Bone Tree

"Richly plotted...[and] the action-packed narrative moves swiftly to a surprising and moving conclusion."--Publishers Weekly on The Bone Tree

"It matches, or even outdoes, the first story in excitement and drama... Greg Iles has long been one of my favorite writers and he is certainly at his best with this series."--Huffington Post on The Bone Tree

"Extraordinary. . . . 'Great Expectations' transplanted to an American South laced with comparably gothic overtones. . . . The Bone Tree establishes Iles as this generation's William Faulkner."--Providence Journal

"Best-selling author Iles superbly blends past and present in his swift and riveting story line."--Library Journal (starred review) on The Bone Tree

"The second installment of his hard-boiled Natchez trilogy finds Iles' hero Penn Cage on even swampier, and surely deadlier, ground than before."--Kirkus Reviews on The Bone Tree

"Prepare to be surprised. Iles has always been an exceptional storyteller, and he has invested these volumes with an energy and sense of personal urgency that rarely, if ever, falter."--Denver Post on Mississippi Blood

"A superb entertainment that is a work of power, distinction and high seriousness... also (a) prime example of what the thriller--and other forms of so-called 'genre' fiction--can accomplish when pushed beyond traditional limits."--Washington Post on Mississippi Blood

From the Back Cover

Greg Iles, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Mississippi Blood, the final book in the Natchez Burning trilogy, returns with an electrifying tale of friendship, betrayal, and devastating secrets.

"I never meant to kill my brother. I never set out to hate my father. I never dreamed I would bury my own son. Nor could I have imagined that I would betray the childhood friend who saved my life, or win a Pulitzer Prize for telling a lie. All these things I have done, yet most people I know would call me an honorable man. I wouldn't go that far . . ."

So begins Cemetery Road, Greg Iles's most captivating and propulsive novel to date. Marshall McEwan is one of the most successful journalists in Washington, D.C. But as a chaotic presidential administration lifts him from print fame to television stardom, Marshall discovers that his father is terminally ill, and he must return to his childhood home--a place he vowed he would never go back to.

Bienville, Mississippi, is no longer the city Marshall remembers. His family's 150-year-old newspaper is failing, and Jet Talal, the love of his youth, has married into the family of Max Matheson, one of a dozen powerful patriarchs who rule the town through the exclusive Bienville Poker Club. To Marshall's surprise, the Poker Club has offered economic salvation to this community on the brink of extinction, in the form of a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. But on the verge of the deal's consummation, two deaths rock Bienville to its core, threatening far more than the city's economic future.

Joining forces with his former lover--whose husband stands to inherit a seat in the Poker Club--Marshall begins digging for the truth. But he and Jet soon discover that the soil of Mississippi is a minefield where explosive secrets can be far more destructive than injustice. By the time Marshall grasps the long-buried truth about his own history--and the woman he loves--he would give almost anything not to have to face it.

Cemetery Road is an unforgettable story of greed and desire, jealousy and murder, forgiveness and damnation--and it proves once again that Greg Iles is one of our modern masters of suspense.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0062824627
• ISBN 13: 9780062824622
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608