Bone Tree (Iles)

The Bone Tree  (Natchez Burning Series, 2)
Greg Iles, 2015
HarperCollins
816 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062311115


Summary
Greg Iles continues the electrifying story begun in his smash New York Times bestseller Natchez Burning in this highly anticipated second installment of an epic trilogy of blood and race, family and justice, featuring Southern lawyer Penn Cage.

Former prosecutor Penn Cage and his fiancee, reporter and publisher Caitlin Masters, have barely escaped with their lives after being attacked by wealthy businessman Brody Royal and his Double Eagles, a KKK sect with ties to some of Mississippi’s most powerful men.

But the real danger has only begun as FBI Special Agent John Kaiser warns Penn that Brody wasn’t the true leader of the Double Eagles. The puppeteer who actually controls the terrorist group is a man far more fearsome: the chief of the state police’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Forrest Knox.

The only way Penn can save his father, Dr. Tom Cage—who is fleeing a murder charge as well as corrupt cops bent on killing him—is either to make a devil’s bargain with Knox or destroy him. While Penn desperately pursues both options, Caitlin uncovers the real story behind a series of unsolved civil rights murders that may hold the key to the Double Eagles’ downfall.

The trail leads her deep into the past, into the black backwaters of the Mississippi River, to a secret killing ground used by slave owners and the Klan for over two hundred years...a place of terrifying evil known only as “the bone tree.”

The Bone Tree is an explosive, action-packed thriller full of twisting intrigue and deadly secrets, a tale that explores the conflicts and casualties that result when the darkest truths of American history come to light. It puts us inside the skin of a noble man who has always fought for justice—now finally pushed beyond his limits.

Just how far will Penn Cage, the hero we thought we knew, go to protect those he loves? (From the publisher.)

Although this is the fifth Penn Cage novel, it is the second in a planned trilogy. Natchez Burning (2014) is the first volume.

Author Bio
• Birth—1960
• Where—Stuttgart, Germany
• Raised—Natchez, Mississippi, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Mississippi
• Currently—lives in in Natchez, Mississippi


Greg Ilesis an American novelist who was born in Stuttgart, Germany, where his physician father ran the U.S. Embassy Medical Clinic. He was raised in Natchez, Mississippi, in the US, the setting of many of his novels. After attending Trinity Episcopal Day School, he graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983. Iles spent several years as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in the band Frankly Scarlet.

He quit the band after he was married and began working on his first novel, Spandau Phoenix, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess. The book was published in 1993 and became the first of twelve New York Times best sellers. In 2010, The Devil's Punchbowl reached #1 on the Times list.

Iles has published fourteen novels in a variety of genres. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and published in more than thirty-five countries worldwide.

In 2002, he wrote the script 24 Hours from his novel of the same name. It was rewritten by director Don Roos and renamed Trapped (to avoid confusion with the then-current television series, 24), which Iles then rewrote during the shoot, at the request of the producers and actors. Iles has mixed feelings about the film, but he enjoyed working with the actors, including Charlize Theron, Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, and Dakota Fanning.

In 2011, Iles sustained life-threatening injuries in a traffic accident and ultimately lost part of his right leg. He has since recovered and is now working on a trilogy of novels featuring Penn Cage, which is set in Natchez, Mississippi, Iles's hometown. The first volume, Natchez Burning, was published in 2014. His second, The Burning Tree, picks up immediately where the first leaves off and was released in 2015. The third volume, Mississippi Blood, published in 2017, brings the trilogy (supposedly) to its conclusion.

Iles is a member of the literary musical group The Rock Bottom Remainders, which includes authors Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, and James McBride.

In July 2013, Greg co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders. The ebook combines essays, fiction, musings, candid email exchanges and conversations, compromising photographs, audio and video clips, and interactive quizzes to give readers a view into the private lives of the authors/musicians. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/15/2014.)

Book Reviews
[R]ichly plotted.... Some readers may feel that [a certain plot] link...is just too much, and that the tale of Penn’s efforts bringing justice to those who committed horrendous crimes against African-Americans would have been enough.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) Penn Cage and fiancee Caitlin Masters doggedly continue their search for the truth behind a series of murders from the 1960s.... Iles superbly blends past and present in his swift and riveting story line. —Joy Gunn, Paseo Verde Lib., Henderson, NV
Library Journal


(Starred review.) Absolutely compelling… A beautifully constructed story, some extremely fine writing, and some hard-to-bear tragedy.… Everything is big about this one: its epic scale [and] its built-in readership based on the success of its predecessor.
Booklist


[H]ard-boiled.... Iles allows Cage and Masters plenty of room to operate—and so they do, with all the missteps of ordinary people, unlike the supercops and superagents of so many other procedurals. Fans will find that the pace has picked up a touch from the first volume—and that's a good thing.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. What real history does Iles use to set the stage for events in The Bone Tree?

2. Iles’s Natchez Burning trilogy has been compared to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, which also features a journalist. What role does journalism play in Greg Iles’s work, and how does it affect the behavior of the various characters?

3. Mayor Penn Cage and his father, Dr. Tom Cage, appear to be on separate paths in this story, though we know they probably agree on many things. Discuss their individual journeys and the moral choices they have to make.

4. Are the residents of Natchez, Mississippi, still living in the past? And are past sins taking their toll on those living in the present?

5. Describe the relationships among the Double Eagles, the Mafia, and the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK.

6. One antagonist in this novel is Lieutenant Colonel Forrest Knox, and he spent part of his career working in New Orleans. Is there a difference between the law and sense of justice in New Orleans and in Natchez?

7. Both The Bone Tree and Natchez Burning begin with a quote from Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. How do Iles’s novels compare with that classic of Southern politics and justice?

8. We see more of FBI Special Agent John Kaiser in The Bone Tree. How do his goals differ from Penn’s and Tom’s?

9. How does Tom’s history converge with the events leading up to the as sassination of JFK? Does Tom know what’s happening around him during this time?

10. Sins of the past that have enshrouded Natchez for decades appear to be impenetrable. What does Penn really think can be done to save those he loves? And is justice even possible in such a place?

11. Where does the Double Eagles history of crime and hate play into the many assassinations that took place in the 1960s?

12. Much of the novel is centered around what Tom has done—or is suspected of doing—in the past. There is an old saying to the effect that the sins of the father will be put upon the son. If that’s true in this story, what sin is Penn guilty of and how does that affect his family?

13. Describe Caitlin Masters' role at The Bone Tree. Is she driven by journalistic pursuit or some higher form of justice? Ultimately, why does she choose to take this journey alone and not with her fiancee, Penn?

14. The Bone Tree is an epic novel that fills over 800 pages. What do you think the final novel in the trilogy, Unwritten Laws, will uncover? Do you think Penn Cage will come out unscathed?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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