‘MISSISSIPPI BLOOD’: GREG ILES’ TRILOGY CONCLUDES WITH VERVE
Completion of trilogy begun in 2014 is a major accomplishment
With the release of “Mississippi Blood,” Greg Iles has completed the trilogy he began in 2014 with “Natchez Burning” and continued in 2015 with “The Bone Tree.” It’s a major accomplishment for the novelist: three king-size books that are page-turning entertainments with an edge of history and a deep understanding of race relations in the American South.
Those considering “Mississippi Blood” may wonder if it will be understandable without having read the two previous novels. The answer is a great big yes, although anyone who has time should start at the beginning. The anchor of the story is Penn Cage, the mayor of Natchez. The Audi-driving 45-yearold has “soft white skin and expensive clothes,” Mr. Iles writes. He also has a Springfield 9 mm in his glove box and another gun on his ankle.
Penn is determined to protect his 11-year-old daughter, Annie, and himself. It’s 2006 and a few months have passed since the violent conclusion of “The Bone Tree.” The events of that book are revealed organically in the latest novel, through conversations, recollections, newspaper stories and courtroom testimony. Penn’s father, Dr. Tom Cage, has been accused of murder-ing his former nurse, a black woman named Viola Turner. His trial is the backbone of “Mississippi Blood.”
Some are convinced of Tom’s guilt, mainly District Attorney Shadrach Johnson: “As yellow as a Cotton Club chorus girl,” Mr. Iles says of the DA’s complexion. Defending Tom is Quentin Avery, who uses a wheelchair and “whose skin is the color of shelled peanuts.” Through-out the book Mr. Iles uses delineations of race to take apart the social strata in Mississippi. “Whatever a post-racial society is, we’re still decades from it,” the author writes.
Mr. Iles introduces a wonderful new character, Cpl. Serenity Butler, who wrote the book “The Paper Bag Test.” Its subject is skin color, and she’s lauded as “a new voice of realism on race.” Black and white, “Mississippi Blood” is packed with compelling characters. There is ancient Cleotha Booker, known as the Cat Lady, and Walt Garrity, the retired Texas Ranger who is Tom’s staunchest ally. Walt’s surprising testimony about what took place at the battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War is both harrowing and spellbinding.
There are new bad guys, too, such as the Varangian Kindred motorcycle gang, hired to do Snake Knox’s dirty work. Snake, who has been present since book one, represents the evil Double Eagles. Formed in the 1960s, the group’s specialty is terrorizing and murdering African-Americans, and they are still at it today. The Double Eagles have reasons to want Viola Turner dead, and if their involvement can be proved, it will save Tom.
Although an emotional courtroom drama, there is plenty of action in “Mississippi Blood.” Mr. Iles drives his story forward with sturdy sentences but stops often to indulge in purely beautiful writing. For instance, he comments on the voice of The Band’s Levon Helm: “He sings with the wounded humanity of a man who has known love and grief and understands that one is the price of the other.”
Some of Mr. Iles’ most lyrical descriptions are of the Mississippi River, “a great tide of mud and water that alters the very atmosphere for miles on either side of it,” he says. But it’s Natchez that most inspires him: “The ruins of a gilded empire where the lost children of Africa worked with false smiles among their former masters,” he says. Trying to right the wrongs inherent in this city’s blood is the true heart of Mr. Iles’ trilogy. Margie Romero is communications manager at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.