Rating: 
Summary: Good start, then runs out of gas
Review: A friend recommended this book to me and, for the most part, I enjoyed it. Greg Iles compares favorably to John Grisham in setting scenes, introducing and describing characters, and weaving a storyline. But about halfway in, I started questioning Penn Cage (the main character) and some of the action. People are shot at, people are murdered, a house is burned down, there are armed security men, tapped phones, a kayak chase scene (in snowy, cold water?), Nixon, Hoover, the FBI, and people who have a change of conscience after 30 years. Iles spends 90% of the book leading us to a trial that runs out of steam and requires a very minor character (Jenny) to resolve.
For being a widower, Cage's interaction with his little daughter once they get to Natchez is very slim compared to his "interaction" with a high school flame (Livy), a new woman in his life (Caitlin), and getting revenge.
Not a bad book to kill time with, but I found it easier to put down the deeper I got into it - great books, of course, work the opposite way.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: Iles has done it again. He has written a book that I couldn't pull myself away from. The characters in this book are so well written they seem real. You really get into the mind of Penn Cage, and Iles makes you feel what he feels. The dialogue (as always in a Greg Iles book) is so well written you feel like you are eaves dropping on a real conversation. This guy just has an amazing grasp of humanity and the events of everyday life. The details that he puts into his books about his character's daily lives is enough to set him apart from other authors.This is a very complicated plot, and Iles pulls it off without a hitch. I love the suspence that he created, and the action scenes are top notch as well. I can't say enough good things about this book. I don't think this one will disappoint anyone. Nor will anything else by Greg Iles.
Rating:
Summary: good by most standards but not worthy of Iles
Review: The book is solid, the plot well structured..It's probably
on a par with most thrillers..
Unfortunately though, it's not up to the talents of Mr. Iles. My favorite book of all time is Mortal Fear...now this is a great book...The Quiet Game is no where close to being as well written
as this... Wish I could say more positive things but Iles is capable of
so much more.. Michael
Rating:
Summary: A Hard to Put Down Page Turner
Review: I decided to read "The Quiet Game" through a recommendation from a friend, and I am so glad that I took the great advice. I was totally captivated by this story and I had a hard time putting it down. Penn Cage, a famous lawyer and novelist, decides to return to his home in Missisippi with his young daughter after the untimely death of his wife. He teams up with newspaper editor Caitlin Masters to investigate a 30 year old civil rights murder that has been left unsolved. The suspense of solving this crime kept me turning the pages all night long. There are so many plot twists and turns that I just had to find out what would happen next. The only complaint I do have is with the last quarter of the book where Caitlin is hardly heard from at all. I really liked the character and I wished she would have been partners with Penn all the way to the end. The book is well written with strong characters, action packed, and I was sorry that it had to end. I plan to read more books by Greg Iles because of how much I enjoyed this one and I think his writing style is excellent. I would highly recommend reading this book to everybody.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thrill Seeker's Perfect Plot
Review: A very successful prosecutor turned novelist whose wife has just died of cancer brings his daughter home to Natchez, Mississippi where his mother and father live. His father is a revered local doctor who was once sued for malpractice many years ago by the most powerful politician-judge in town. The son soon finds himself pulled into a 30 year-old murder of a young black worker and begins to realize that a seemingly killing from long ago has current meaning for the town, the power structure, and his own family. Those who participated in that killing still have a very big stake in having the case remain unsolved. They are prepared to kill to keep yesterday's secrets protected. The very pressures to give up the case spur the novelist-prosecutor on. At the same time, he is encouraged by the desperation of the dead man's widow and mother and the hopes of the black community that someone will care about justice. The story is made more complex by a mayor's race in which the black candidate wants the case hushed up until after the election so it will not polarize the community and hurt his chances for election. The business community wants it hushed up because they are about to close a deal for the opening of a German factory that will create jobs and wealth for Natchez. The local newspaper is part of a chain and the owner's daughter has been sent to town to learn the trade so she can someday replace her father. She sees Pulitzer prize written all over the case and so she has a real interest in covering the case with as much sensationalism as possible even if it makes her advertisers mad. Finally, the FBI has some dirty linen tied up in the failure to solve the case a generation ago and does not want to be embarrassed since the new director of the FBI was the junior agent in the original case. The pressures build, the unexpected develops, and personal life intertwines with history in a fascinating mixture of how life sometimes happens.
Rating:
Summary: It's a Zinger!
Review: Mr. Iles is, indeed, a talent of the first order. He has done superb research into the law, and absorbed a great deal of medical knowledge from his father. I grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, and enjoyed immensely reading his action scenes in settings less than two blocks from my old home -- in the pecan shelling plant. His take on subliminal politics is -- or at least would have been when I lived there in the 50s -- extremely perceptive. My own father was a lawyer in Natchez, and very active in efforts to make the public library and other facilities available to blacks. I can vividly remember his telling me, "Son, if anyone you don't know ever calls you and tells you to meet them on the corner of Main and Union, don't go." So Greg Iles has written of terrible forces that, if not presently, at least were there in the recent past. His only venture into the realm of non-credibility is in putting his heroes in a freezing Colorado river for twenty minutes. Four minutes in such an environment would paralyze any normal human being. But if you can shake this off, "The Quiet Game" is a zinger of a book, easily at the same level as Grisham.
Rating:
Summary: A great book with something for everyone.
Review: This book has it all. A southern legal thriller, romance aplenty. A 30 year old apparent civil rights murder, local and national government cover-up. Crooked judges, snipers, drunk and drugged cops, a local murderer with terminal cancer who isn't through killing yet, a hint of incest. Everything. I am not one of those "couldn't put it down until I read the last page" people but I did take a day off from work today to finish the thing. I have read all of Mr. Iles' books and this is the best one yet. I don't have the right to say he writes better than Grisham but I enjoy his books just as much.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This was the first Greg Iles book I had read. At first I thought it was a very good John Grisham style novel, but it takes a few very unexpected jumps that make Iles a unique experience. This is well written, with believable character development.
If you like this, read Mortal Fear for a kinkier side of Iles or 24 Hours for suspense. His war books are also entertaining, but not quite the page-turners that these are.
Rating:
Summary: A riveting read
Review: After having read Spandau Phoenix and Black Cross, I picked up the Quiet Game solely because I knew any book by Greg Iles had to be good. And I was not wrong. While the topic was not one I was usually attracted to (as opposed to the WWII theme of the other two I had read), I was hooked from the first page. I literally could not put this book down. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, another twist and turn proved me wrong. Having recently moved to New Orleans, I found the southern theme very revealing and am looking forward to visiting Natchez. A cast of memorable characters, a troubled period in our country's history, and a surprise in almost every chapter makes for a gripping book. I can't wait to read my next Iles novel.
Rating:
Summary: Main Character Needed More Faith
Review: I think I fell in love with the main character, Penn Cage, in the first chapter as he took on the role as superdad to his daughter, found recently motherless. The caring and thoughtfulness he showed while dealing with his own pain was very heartfelt and grabs the reader. The story line of this novel is definitely captivating. I especially wanted to read on to find out about the relationship between Penn and his lost love for another main character, Livy Marston. Another interesting character is Caitlin Masters a newspaper editor that Penn meets along the way. The reader grows to like her as she proves her worth towards Penn's case at hand. The court case that Penn is trying to win involves murder, race, money, power, political clout, and even a tinge of sex. I was a little disappointed when Penn found out an important piece to a puzzle from another person. I had absolute faith that he could solve the particular mystery on his own, especially with the introduction of Jenny Doe. When he just "found out" the answer I was a bit surprised that the author didn't have equal faith in Penn's intelligence. Near the end I read on frustrated because I knew what it would take for him to win the case and it seemed Penn should have caught on by then. Overall, a good read but the main character disappointed me near the end.
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