Rating: 
Summary: Twisted Story
Review: There are already a lot of reviews on this book "The Quiet Game" by Greg Iles. What can I add? Maybe that I observed some interesting details in the fast-paced action of this story which is twisted in such a way that it hardly can be summarized.Writer Penn Cage - a former district attorney assistant - comes back to his home town Natchez after the tragical death of his wife. Immediately, he is caught (a) in the investigation of an assumed civil-rights murder from thirty years ago which turns out to involve such celebrities like Edgar Hoover, the present FBI boss, and the former judge of the state supreme court Leo Marston, and (b) between two women, a journalist and editor of the local newspaper on one side and his former high-school love Livy nee Marston. Being a former prosecutor in Texas "who sent people on death row", his motives for investigating the murder are far from idealistic: He wants revenge for the rough treatment of his father by Leo Marston in court which stimulated a heart attack. So Cage is following the hints which connect the murder to Marston... Some FBI guys, policemen, a nanny, and family members of murderers convicted by Penn Cage make a nice body count. The story twists and often brings up new details which make it puzzling unto the final showdown in front of the jury. It is interesting to note how revenge, justice, and punishment are blended in this novel: From the prisen death penalty - which the protagonist still supports but wants to avoid to go to the executions in future - to paying lots of money to a guy blackmailing his father and to covering a crime of his old friend Livy, Penn Cage does not seem to have a clear idea. From the revenge for his father's heart attack via the attempt to solve the civil-rights murder with special emphasis of the situation of the black population in the south to the uncovering of a nationwide scandal: Penn Cage goes through this story like the hero of an old-fashioned screwball comedy, just with the exception that it is not funny. The polarization between "good" and "bad" guys is a bit annoying. Noone basically cares if one of the bad ones gets killed. In some way, of course, that's the way it is in life. The only person not fitting to this good/bad scheme seems to be Livy. But on the other hand, her behavior is so unpredictable that she might be a prime candidate for some sessions at a psychatrist. It might also be that the loss of his wife makes Penn especially sensitive to the offers of other women. But the mixture of his late wife Sarah, the journalist Caitlin (Pulitzer before she turns 29), and his old classmate Livy seems to be a bit too much. In summary: A gripping book with twists in the story of twisted people. Enjoy the reading, and enjoy it also between the printed lines.
Rating: 
Summary: A new favourite
Review: This is my first book by Greg Iles, and I've already noticed he's one helluva good writer, but what is most impressive is that his subjects change greatly along each book he writes. "The quiet game" is a legal thriller, in the likes of John Grisham - when Grisham still knew how to write -, but in "Spandau phoenix" and "Black cross" we have Second World War, "24 hours" is a pure thriller about kidnapping, in "Dead sleep" we have an investigative thriller, etc. What I'm trying to say is that Iles is not afraid to write, no matter what about, as long as the plot is good. And, at least in "The quiet game", the plot is very good. Penn Cage abandoned a successfull career as a death-row prosecutor to become a legal-thriller writer. Then, when his young wife dies because of cancer, he goes back to his childhood city, Natchez, Mississipi, to get help from his parents to raise his daughter. But, inadvertently, Cage steps in a wasp's nest when he mentions, in a conversation with a journalist friend, an unresolved racial crime that happened 30 years ago. Suddenly, the little town must take sides on the matter, and Penn finds himself standing in the thin line that is the middle of a war zone in Natchez. This is just the main plot of "The quiet game". Iles throws lots of other balls in the air and seems to be toying with them, it's no effort for him not to let them fall. The text is good, there are lots of action scenes, the situations begin to be tied-up together and in the end, I was left with the impression of an excellent book. Penn Cage is not the only fully-developed character in the book. There are many of them, and the simple mentioning of their names brings to the reader instant recognition: they are all three-dimensional, some good, some wickedly bad, but all very present throughout the story. Greg Iles was really raised in Natchez, and I wonder how much of the book was imagination and how much of it was the truth. Even the name of the main character has the same number of letters of the author. Anyway, I'm staying clear of the town for the time being.
"The quiet game" is also Iles' personal favourite of his own books. Which means something, don't you think? Grade 9.1/10
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