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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