Book Review: ‘Cemetery Road’ Is The Next Great Greg Iles Novel

Author Greg Iles is back with another great novel. The New York Times Bestselling author tells a story of a small town with a man who must confront his past, the small Mississippi town he grew up in and a powerful group of men that will do anything to save a billion dollar deal. Filled with great characters, an intense story that starts at the very beginning and never lets up. With lots of twists and turns and when you think the good guy has won, you’re thrown a curve ball and it’s a whole new ballgame.

Pulitzer Prize winner Marshall McEwan is returning to his small hometown of Bienville, Mississippi (he’s been in Washington D.C.), the place he left 18 years ago and hasn’t really been back much over the years. Now his estranged father is dying and he has returned to help his mom care for him and to run the family newspaper. The town is about to have a billion dollar deal with the Chinese, which might be built on sacred ground. Archaeologist Buck McKibben is investigating and someone murders him. His body washes and people think it was an accident but not Marshall and he gets proof it was murder.

The people running the town are all in co-hoots and run by the powerful Bienville Poker Club and they dictate what gets done. Marshall has his own sources and runs stories in the paper pointing out the murder. Soon a second murder takes place that of one of the Poker Club members Max Matheson, whose wife has either killed herself or set up her husband.

But there’s so much more going on in this small town. Marshall is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend and first love Jet, the wife of his best friend Paul, the son of Max. As Marshall investigates more he finds things out that could ruin the deal with the Chinese, causing the town to further decline, secret affairs, dirty deals witht he Poker Club and it causes life-threatening things to happen. Just when Marshall thinks he has everything in control, the game changes and it could be the end of a lot of people.

You can pick up Cemetery Road in stores on Tuesday, March 5th from Morrow.