Although NATCHEEZ BURNING is fiction, much of it is based on actual cases involving racial crimes in Louisiana and Mississippi during the 1960s. Add the typical Greg Iles style with thrills and suspense, and this book is a winner.

Penn Cage, a lawyer and mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, must save his father after he is accused of murder not once but twice. Natchez and close-by areas are full of corrupt characters, including city and state officials and even senior citizens. Penn is sometimes at odds with his fiance, Caitlin, an ambitious newspaper reporter and publisher who wants to write the story of these people and expose their crimes dating back to the 1960s to the present. Of course, Penn and Caitlin become personally involved and subject to (too much) violence.

Penn and several of the other characters in this book are continued from three previous books. But NATCHEZ BURNING is also the first in a trilogy. And the end does leave questions unanswered to be continued, I assume, in the second book.

This thriller is good but not unputdownable. It deserves high ratings because of its basis on real cases.

Great choice for book club. Only problem is you will want to read the next book in the series!