Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: It has been quiet some time (if ever) that I have read a book by someone with Mr. Iles ability to convey imagery with words. It indeed made for interesting and exciting reading!!
Rating: 
Summary: good read
Review: okay so i am supposed to be studying. but i cannot help but read fiction - and in this case it was a great book. an attorney turns writer finds himself going home to a hotbed of murder that took place about thirty years ago after his wife has died and he has a daughter to care for. the book was compared to Grishams' work - i think because of the courtroom drama that takes place at the end of the book. the writing was good, fast paced, involved a lot of characters maybe some with not too much depth. but somehow this all came together and made for an intriguing story - most importantly it touched on the hoover administration and the damage that was incurred because obviously as we know now, hoover was without a conscience as well as a racist. so if this is fiction and some fact was interwoven i am all for shedding some light on an intolerable situation and a person, make that persons, who perpetuated it.
Rating: 
Summary: A LOT OF EXCITEMENT - NOT MUCH DEPTH
Review: After reading "Mortal Fear," I counted the months until this book appeared on the book store shelf. The end result was a huge disappointment; the book was not nearly as mind-grabbing as expected. The idea of the main character, Penn Cage, a lawyer turned novelist, appeared old hat from the very beginning. Perhaps, one has to be from the southern states to understand and appreciate the story, but to sum it up very simply, I found the whole l-o-n-g episode extremely boring. It felt as if I had read a thousand books like it only the characters' names had been changed. The setting and racial prejudice was moving, inexcusable and, yes, absolutely horrific beyond belief. However, it is not exactly a new topic, nor was the entire story much different from many other stories of southern racial tension. Hopefully, in Iles future books, he will be come up with a setting, story, mood and characters that are more original and less predictable. Iles, in "Mortal Fear," was a master of psychological suspense. Perhaps, in future, we will see more of this extraordinary side of him.
Rating:
Summary: SO good!
Review: Penn Cage is a former Texas prosecutor turned writer who takes his small daughter home to his parents in Natchez, Mississippi, after the death of his wife. As soon as he hears whispered rumors of the 30-year-old murder of a local black man, he begins looking into it. Little does he know that his questions will expose his family to horrific danger and bring the wrath of the FBI down on him. Whether the long-ago murder was committed to silence a civil rights activist or whether the motive was the usual love or money, Penn is in the case shrouded in its miasma of conspiracy and cover-up for the duration. The storyline grabs you from the beginning, but you don't want to flip the pages TOO fast because you don't want to miss a word of Iles's beautiful prose. He doesn't miss or omit a single nuance of Southern life, and every time I picked this book back up I felt like I was being transported straight to Natchez. Based on both plot and exceptional writing, this is one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: True to his roots
Review: Having read some of the reviews before writing my own, I am amazed at how few actually came from real Southerners. Having been born and bred in Mr. Iles' home state of Mississippi, I can truly appreciate many of the generations-old concepts he brings up and how he manages to bring them to life. I've always thought of the South as the red-headed stepchild of America -- last in every poll taken over the last 40 years. The poorest, the dirtiest, the most ill and least educated in the country. However, I was intrigued by this book because of its reflection on what we term the finer things in life - the old antebellum plantation owners, the semi-annual pilgrimage, the grand parties - all of which conveniently ignores the reality of today's South. I suppose because Natchez is just plain hard to get to geographically, it has escaped many of the hardships, trials and revolutions of the rest of the state. I was led to read this book because I was told that each character in this book was based upon a real person living in Natchez. I visit there quite frequently and was fascinated by its plot. Having now finished the book, I am a bit surprised that a town can carry such a burden without also being destroyed. If, indeed, there is any true basis to this book's plot, I am, at the very least, disheartened by my heritage and, at worst, sickened by the "state of the State" today. Although I am proud of what I thought Mississippi had become over the last generation, I wonder now if that is just an illusion as well.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Compare Iles to Grisham
Review: This is a perfect book for the plane, the beach, or just to get lost in, but don't think you're picking up another Grisham. This is far better than anything Grisham has written. Iles' characters are better developed than Grisham, and his ability to evoke an sense of place and the perfect pacing of the plot make this stand out in mystery fiction.
Rating:
Summary: The quiet Game
Review: Great read. Greg always delivers on a great rollercoaster ride of suspense.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, Fun, Action
Review: It is sort of sleazy comparing this to Grisham. The writing is not of the same quality. If the marketing group had just evaluated it on its own merits this would still be a good book. Not accurate in a legal sense and a bit far fetched at times, The Quiet Game is nonetheless a fun book that does capture you from the start and keeps you interested to the very end. Penn Cage is a lawyer turned novelist. Sound familiar? He comes back to his hometown to crack a 30 year old civil rights murder case. In an appropriately complex plot he battles local politics and national conspiracies to an exciting conclusion. In the mean time there is violence and sex just enough to keep you interested but not too much to make you say , oh give me a break. The plot moves quickly. In fact there is not one section that slows you down and makes you consider putting the book down and start something else. As I have stated in other reviews, I read to be entertained. This book filled the bill with a plot unique enough to distinguish it from the rest of the pack but not outrageous. Good for the beach but not for a literature class. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: You have to read this!
Review: I had never read anything by Greg Iles before reading this, and just picked it up because the description looked interesting. I quickly found that I couldn't put it down. I think the best thing about Iles, at least in this book, is his great character development. I felt like I knew the characters, and they were very believable. In The Quiet Game, Iles also throws you numerous surprises, ones I never saw coming. Not too short, not too long...just perfect. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: I don't get it....
Review: Why so many people like this book, I mean. I found it B-O-R-I-N-G. I guess we all have our specific tastes. I gave the book two stars for effort - maybe mine. About halfway through I just couldn't stand it any more. I found just about all the characters impossible cliches - the feisty newspaper heiress, the beautiful, steel magnolia prom queen, the noble parents, the saintly Black "mammy." Oh, give me a break. The only character I vaguely responded to was the villain, Presley - he was a (minor) hoot. Problems: 1, Too much speechifying, about race, the prom queen, the law. I need to experience with a writer, not be talked-to. 2. Little or no wit. It wasn't a downer, merely flat. I like a book with humor; with "juice." If you want to read a great book about the law, about causes, about love, check out "Waking The Dead" by Scott Spencer. Also: "Brainstorm" by Richard Dooling. These books are not labored sermons but sharp, cutting-edge, hilarious (but with serious themes) and in the case of Spencer's book, soulful. I saw some women's critiques here, but I'm pretty sure "The Quiet Game" is a "guy-book." It kind of just saws away, if you know what I mean.
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