The Quiet Game

Rating:
Summary: Better than John Grisham
Review: I can't figure out why this guy isn't more well known...is it lack of marketing? I have no idea. I do know however that this book was awesome, the plot was multi layered and kept you guessing, I cared about the characters and their plight, and I was very entertained. Based on reading this book, I want to snap up the other 5 that Greg has written.

Spread the word!!

Rating:
Summary: Simply irresistible
Review: The quiet game is an incredible rich book and Greg Iles is a superb intelligent writer of paramount quality. He goes the distance, promising big and delivering big.
The book is very long and totally engrossing, with a neat story telling, full of stereotyped multidimensional graphic characters and vivid portraits of places and circumstances.
The gripping plot is very complex like a spider web but easy to follow at the same time. Added surprises skillfully crafted galore and key revelations are made at the right time, Iles does not resort to cheap odd gimmicks to solve knotty events.
I have read several books of Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Nelson Demille and placed them among my favorite authors, but after the Quiet Game, I can affirm Iles tops them, he is a gifted writer. If you are a reader who follow this line of authors do not hesitate to try this book. I am adding the Quiet Game to my listmania right away because it fully deserves it.

Rating:
Summary: The Best of Grisham And Turow Rolled Into One
Review: The Quiet Game is a fantastic book and shouldn't be missed by anyone who loves a good legal thriller that is well written. Not only is this book better plotted and more exciting than anything Grisham ever wrote, its as well written and "literary," as anything Turow has turned out without being plodding (as Turow often is). The characters are well rounded,the conflicts compelling, and the ending satisfies. this is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: the Quiet Game is Quite a Game
Review: The book had me engaged from the very beginning. The characters where interesting, the plot twists unexpected and the outcome exciting. This is the second book I've read by Greg Iles and so far they are different enough that I can't predict the flow or the outcome of the story. Very good for me because I usually can predict the writers style after one book. I can hardly wait to read his next book.

Rating:
Summary: Not Quite a Grissom
Review: This was my first Iles book. Its rather entertaining though I did find that the loose ends were too nicely tied up at the end. The courtroom part were he is pitted against a former girlfriend was way too Hollywood for my tastes. But it warrants 3 stars because I did find myself wanting to keep reading.

Rating:
Summary: The Quiet Game was anything but................
Review: The Quiet Game is the first novel by Greg Iles that I have read. It will certainly not be the last!! The Quiet Game was difficult to put down. The story grabs the reader from the very beginning, with action, intrigue and frequent plot twists building as the story goes along. In the story itself, lawyer and best-selling author Penn Cage retreats to his home in Natchez, Mississippi with his young daughter as they both struggle with the death of Cage's wife. Quickly, the intended quiet and solace is turned upside down as Cage stumbles into the issues surrounding the decades-old death of a black man in Natchez. As the story progresses, the character development lets the reader understand the egos, anxieties, and motivations of a broad set of characters -- and also drives the reader to form an affinity or antipathy for most characters. The story gives the reader an interesting picture of the South, both today and as it was in the 1960's. All-in-all, the Quiet Game will keep you guessing and turning the pages. I strongly recommend the Quiet Game.

Rating:
Summary: legal thriller meets suspense thriller
Review: Greg Iles is a brilliant writer.

His best book is Mortal Fear. This book is not his best book. The story is that of a widower and his daughter who go back home to the deep south to spend some time with their family. Then, everything goes wrong. A conspiracy plot rivaling that of the Kennedy killing unravels at times convincingly. Some of the characters ring true. Some are hard to believe in and that slows what otherwise would have been another five star Iles into a four star good book with some imperfections.

This is certainly a good book, but it just isn't his best.

Rating:
Summary: Hooked on Greg Iles; his writing style is riveting!
Review: Greg Iles' use of the first person singular point of view in his novel, "The Quiet Game", is a powerful tool to make the reader align himself with Penn Cage, an attorney and author who debuts as the hero of Iles novel of the south. Raised in Natchez, Mississippi and haunted by the death of his wife, Cage returns with his small daughter. Life is not as simple as remembered, and Cage is drawn reluctantly (and by his ego!) into a complicated mystery that has remained unsolved for many years.

Too quickly, his family and friends are endangered by his probes into the coverup of what appears to be a civil rights murder of his childhood. Cage keeps digging, formulating his own conclusions (sometimes wrong!) as he goes, and eventually bringing the misdeeds of the past to light.

Iles' prose will leave you breathless and will cause you to delay your chores while you get to the end of "one more chapter"...and then another and another.

4 stars instead of 5 when I so obviously enjoyed it? Iles makes
the plot unnecessarily complex with one too many twists and turns. For instance, the story could have survived and remained powerful without Olivia....but, small flaws notwithstanding, Iles novel will keep me going back for more of his writing. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A sleepy Mississippi town is rudely awakened..........
Review: when Penn Cage, a Houston prosecutor who has turned to writing novels, returns home with his young daughter,after the death of his wife from cancer.

He finds, however that his own family has been living in danger.

He then takes it upon himself to delve into the intrigue that has surrounded the town since the so-called "civil-rights" murder of a black man many years ago. The cover-up has been made possible by "the powers that be", and he is determined to dig deeper and deeper until he unearths all the answers. And, there are many facets to this crime and other hidden mysteries which keep the reader turning pages into the wee hours of the morning.

The town is covered in the facade of elegance and quietude and Penn has to rattle quite a few cages and step on a lot of toes to solve the seemingly unsolvable.

Iles' style is incomparable. He is sleek yet subtle...genteel with an undercurrent of raw realism. He easily holds you in his spell without you even realizing that you are trapped by his skill and master story-telling.

This is truly a novel not to be missed and ranks this young author among 'the best of the best'.

Rating:
Summary: Courtroom Drama in Natchez
Review: Penn Cage has achieved notoriety as a best-selling author of legal thrillers, and in his practice as a prosecuting attorney in Houston, has sent a dozen men and women to death row and has watched 9 of them executed. But he is powerless in the face of the grief he feels as a result of the recent death of his wife, and feels helpless at consoling his four-year old daughter, Annie. He decides that they will return to Natchez for a while to live with his folks and let his kind and gentle parents help them try to heal.

But when Penn returns to Natchez he immediately becomes embroiled in the long unsolved murder of a black man at the local battery plant over 30 years ago. The family felt that the case had been swept under the rug and never properly investigated, and Penn commits to re-opening the case. With the help of the sexy, intelligent editor of the local paper, Caitlin Masters, Penn gradually uncovers the web of intrigue, scandal, lies and deceit that have kept this crime unsolved for so many years. The web extends to retired police officers, former FBI agents, and even the head of the FBI.

The numerous plot twists and turns are fascinating, riveting and absorbing. The 'quiet game' refers to the fact that many people involved with this long-ago crime just decided to keep quiet about what they knew out of fear or bribery or disinterest. Penn describes Natchez as 'funky, gossip, sex, whisky and eccentricity, all behind a gossamer veil of Southern gentility', and it is clear that the Civil Rights movement isn't over in Natchez. Penn also rehashes his relationship with his high-school love, Olivia, who suddenly decides to move back to Natchez and whose father is also involved in the murder and scandal that Penn is investigating.

Love, sex, violence, intrigue, danger, redemption and finally, justice...all are represented in great quantity in this novel which will keep you enthralled until the last page.