Rating: 
Summary: extraordinary
Review: This is the best book I have read in a long time. In it are all the interesting twists that you could wish for. From J. Edgar Hoover, Nixon, the FBI, incest, love and the 1960's. Mr. Iles has outdone himself, he shows a sagacious understanding of the era,and the principles involved in those days. Entwined in the story line is a well defined statement of not only race relations of that era , but what they have come to be some thirty years later. A great book you will enjoy and remember.
Rating:
Summary: Totally engaging, better than his latest work, 24 hours!
Review: If you read 24 Hours before this book, you might well think you're reading books by two different authors. I was totally riveted by this book, which not only had a great mystery at the center of it, but managed to combine southern politics and scandal, history and a bit of romance into an intrguing book with non-stop suspense and action. I nearly didn't read this one, however, after first reading another book by this author, 24 Hours. That one was a waste of time and money, to my mind, seeming half-hearted and glib. The Quiet Game had the heart and soul of a passionate writer with a special, resonant voice. Highly recommended for fans of mysteries and southern literature.
Rating:
Summary: His best out of them all
Review: This was the first Greg Iles book I ever read and it was also the best. I rushed out and bought all of his books and they are all good, but this is a fabulous read. I could not put it down and was sad when it was over! If you like a good suspense thriller, then this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: An absolutely spectacular read. Iles is naturally compared to fellow Mississippi author John Grisham, but he leaves the best-seller far behind with this rich, layered tale of Penn Cage, a laywer turned best-selling author from Houston. Cage has recently lost his wife, and he and his five year old daughter return to Natchez for some quality time with his parents.A chance meeting on the airplane flight with a young lady who turns out to be the publisher of the local newspaper gets the story underway - she prints his off the record comments about the town's racially plauged past and sets off a firestorm. A fantastic history lesson as well as a well-researched, especially well-written story of good ole boys, debutantes and the secrets that they share - and the courtroom drama at the end rivals the rarified air of Scott Turow. The best book I've read in a couple of years, and a story which caused me to seek out everything else in this author's catalog.
Rating: 
Summary: Everything but the kitchen sink
Review: Lawyer/writer Penn Cage flees the big city after his wife Sarah dies, heading back to the hick town where he grew up. He's hoping that good old Mum and Dad will help heal his little daughter, distraught at the recent loss of her Mom. But no sooner does Penn hit town when a beautiful local journalist (in a see-thru blouse...) makes him feel 'absolute proof that someone else will one day occupy the place that Sarah held in my life'. His poor daughter also rarely gets another mention as another beautiful girl from his past re-appears, and Penn finds himself drawn into a whopping cover-up encompassing no less than murder, blackmail, arson, money, illegitimacy, revenge, incest, white trash, rednecks, black pride, lawyers in love, civil rights, the Klan, JFK, J. Edgar Hoover, the full range of FBI and ex-FBI characters, and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King - I kid you not. The whole book's like this - an enjoyable holiday read, but too excessive. Too many conspiracies, too many stock characters, too much angst too often - is he involved for selfish or selfless reasons? and too many words, with action scenes taking pages and pages to describe. The main character somehow remains unknown - he does this, he does that, but you never feel you know what he's like - but you do get some wonderfully drawn minor characters, and the author doesn't avoid the pointy end of race relation issues.
Rating:
Summary: Southern Assesments Done Well
Review: The story is good, the plot twists and characters are somewhat beleivable, however the best aspect of this book is the social commentary on the south. Additionaly, the author seems to find it somewhat endearing. Which is what we need in a world where mainstream understanding of the south is lynching and no shoes. Although I grew up in a similar town (just up the river) and would be hesitant to think that the entire town would play such an intense quiet game in this day and time, overall the book had interesting speculations on his part.
Rating: 
Summary: Unrelenting action!
Review: Popular author of legal thrillers Penn Cage returns with his four-year-old daughter to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, following the death of his wife from cancer. Shortly after his return, he becomes intrigued with the 1968 Natchez murder case of Del Payton, not only because it involves a black man aspiring to obtain an employment position formerly given only to whites, but also because it is somehow tied to Leo Marston, a powerful former district attorney who once tried to destroy the medical career of Penn Cage's father through a malpractice law suit. Iles does it again! In THE QUIET GAME, the author has created a truly suspenseful story with fully fleshed-out characters that have thoughts and feelings beyond the plot of the story. Using a setting of Natchez, Mississippi, his own hometown, he gives readers a view of this Southern city complete with its picturesque beauty, its strengths, and its faults. The novel comes complete with two beautiful women, an adorable little girl, a loving family, racial tension, and devious villains. For the size of the novel, it succeeds very well in maintaining the momentum of its story. When, at first, the information Cage seeks to solve the murder case comes a bit easily, the reader is fooled into thinking the mystery will be readily solved. Then bullets start flying, a house burns down, and still the mystery remains. Tension continues to build, making for an absorbing, provocative read.
Rating:
Summary: Far from his best, but somewhat entertaining
Review: I've read Iles first four novels, and enjoyed them. This (the fourth) is the least of the bunch, though, and the slide from excellence to mere competence is disspiriting. Black Cross and Spandau Pheonix hummed with tension and had an inner consistency and logic missing from this book and from Mortal Fear. The Quiet Game demanded too much suspension of disbelief for me, as our protagonist went bulling forward without posing questions any teenager would ask. He's shot at numerous times, and the would-be assassins are frequently killed-- do we learn who they were? Does he ask? He finds out that a potential witness has possibly damning tapes and records of a heinous crime-- does he ask to see them? Major characters (Kelly) and plot-lines (the students' search for evidence in Marston's files) are introduced and then forgotten. The lack of rigor on view here convinces me that this is an early novel that he revived without a thorough edit. I hope his new novel reflects the polish of his first two.
Rating:
Summary: Too much.
Review: Too many plot twists. Too unrealistic. But it keeps you reading and would make a good movie. In fact, if heavily edited and with the right stars would make a great movie; great scenes in Natchez and Colorado. The author is very talented but he needed too make the book half-way realistic. He has a real talent for dialog. He also gets the courtroom stuff mostly right so I'm guessing he was a lawyer. Grisham's virtue is the spareness of his text and the fact that reader can say, "Yeah, that could happen." Not with this book. One thing I really disliked was the virtue of the Democrats and the evil of the rich Republicans. Cartoons. Spare us, please. Dems don't have a monopoly on virtue. They've been living on the civil rights "movement" for 30 years. Get over it. Times have changed. The past doesn't absolve today's sins. And Carlos and Edgar. How come their estates' don't get any royalties from this stuff? I demand justice. We need a Deceased Public Figures Publicity Fairness Act. Get Mike Espy, Al Gore and Bill Clinton on that one right away. Maybe an Executive Order would do the trick. And what's the matter with Fargo and snow? I've been to Fargo and I've been to Mississippi and I prefer Fargo.
Rating:
Summary: Like It Quiet
Review: This thriller will take you into the back doors of Natchez, Mississippi - a truly distinguished, magical place. If you have been for one of the pilgrimages, you will have a frame of reference, and if not, Mr. Iles does a more than capable job of etching in the backdrop. This is an action packed story of race and politics, first love and morals. From the good ole boys intent on their own agendas, a cameo appearance by J. Edgar Hoover, to the over-achiever power females, the story line twists and turns and moves at a frantic pace, but is clever and well thought out. The characters could perhaps have been a little less "cardboard" - never got to know them well enough to miss any of them. Particularly Penn Cage's daughter and mother, who may as well have been window dressing. But altogether, a tough and exciting thriller with a surprising twist.
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