Penn Cage novels

Widower Penn Cage returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, where, finding that his father is being blackmailed, he reopens a notorious murder case that involves powerfully dangerous town forces, the FBI, and his own past.

The Devil's Punchbowl is a deep pit near the river in Natchez, Mississippi, which holds the bodies of numerous murder victims and -- according to rumor -- the buried treasure of Jean Lafitte. It's a dangerous place, a kudzu-strangled, snake- rat- and armadillo-infested hole so deep that you can't see the bottom. Against this backdrop, Iles' protagonist Penn Cage (The Quiet Game) returns in a mix of murder, racial tension and double-crosses.

A follow-up to Natchez Burning finds Southern lawyer Penn Cage desperately struggling to protect his father from false charges and corrupt officers by confronting the puppet master behind the Double Eagles terrorist group.

"Fifteen years after the events of the Natchez Burning trilogy, Penn Cage is alone. Nearly all his loved ones are dead, his old allies gone. But Penn's self-imposed exile comes to an abrupt end when a brawl at a Bienville music festival triggers a shooting--one that nearly takes the life of his daughter Annie. Before the stunned populace can process the tragedy, an arsonist begins torching antebellum plantation homes in Bienville. When an unknown...