Discovering a new author who provides hours of reading pleasure in every novel that bears his signature is one of the great joys of reading. Greg Iles is just such an author, and I am deeply indebted to a close friend who has recommended him to me. That Iles is a terrific novelist isn't just my opinion, as ten of his books have made the best seller list on the New York Times beginning with his first novel, "Spandau Phoenix," which was published in 1992. 

His novels can be placed into three categories: historical mysteries like his first novel, general crime thrillers like this one, and, finally, novels starring Penn Cage, a former Houston prosecuting attorney turned detective. Three Penn Cage novels have so far been penned (pun intended), but more about them in later reviews as I am very happily reading one at the moment.

Greg Iles seems like an interesting person who has led a rather unusual life before he settled down to writing. He was born in Germany in 1960 where his father was the head of the US Embassy Medical Clinic at the height of the Cold War. (For reference purposes, the Cuban Missile Crisis took place in October, 1962.) Instead of settling down to a more sedentary career after graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1983, he performed for some years as a guitar player with his own rock band, Frankly Scarlett. It was only after marriage that he came to the realization that a rock band lifestyle doesn't mix well with family life. 

Now settled into a very successful literary career, Iles still steps out as the lead guitar with another band, The Rock Bottom Remainders. So far, one of his novels, "24 Hours," has been adapted into a 2002 movie by Sony Pictures and released under the title, "Trapped," with Iles also writing the screenplay. He currently resides with his family in Natchez, Mississippi, the site of this mystery.

It hasn't been a good year for Alex Morse, a celebrated hostage negotiator for the FBI. Her beloved father had just passed away, and now her mother has been diagnosed as having an advanced case of ovarian cancer. She lingers on, in and out of consciousness, at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

On top of these two family tragedies, Alex herself has been placed on medical leave to recuperate after being shot. She had tried to negotiate the surrender of a team of bank robbers, but that effort failed and she was shot during the subsequent charge of the building with her face and jaw ripped to shreds from flying glass shards when she turned around to check on Agent James Broadbent, her FBI partner. He was less fortunate as he foolishly forgot to wear his vest and he died after catching the brunt of the firepower. Only a few knew that Alex was clandestinely in love with him even though he was a married man. 

Alex is on extended leave for both physical and mental therapy, but even this moment of reflective tranquility is interrupted when she is informed that Grace Fennel, her only sister, has suffered a sudden brain hemorrhage while cheering her son on at a school athletic event. Now she lies near death in a bed at the same hospital as their mother. Alex quickly boards a plane to fly from Charlottesville, North Carolina, to the University Hospital ICU in Jackson, Mississippi, to be near her sister.

Grace's husband, Bill Fennel, is there to greet her as she arrives and he tells her that Grace has just hours to live. Surprisingly, their son, Jamie, is not there to say goodbye to his mother. The doctor tells her that in her few periodic moments of lucidity, Grace Fennel has been asking for her. Sitting quietly beside her bed, Alex talks to Grace and mentions the sibling code words that they have always used when with each other in the hope that they might inspire Grace back to consciousness.  

Alex is successful as Grace wakes up just long enough to utter a few drug-addled words that shock her beyond measure. Grace grabs her hand tightly and whispers, "Eeth a Monther!" "Ee kiwd me!" Who? My husband, Grace answers. A few more words follow that chill her to the bone.

Using investigative tools available to her as an FBI agent, Grace hacks into Bill Fennel's financial records and finds that he has recently gone into business with a Natchez divorce lawyer. More oddly and coincidentally, she discovers that the spouses of nine of this lawyer's clients have all died prematurely from unexplained causes during the past five years. In shadowing this his office to see who might show up as a new client, she spies a strikingly beautiful woman who turns out to be Thora Shepard, the wife of a prominent doctor at the University Hospital. Grace quickly makes an appointment with Dr. Chris Shepard. He will be devastated when he meets his new patient. 2006, Scribner (Simon & Schuster).