Southern Man
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4.4 • 34 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The hugely anticipated new Penn Cage novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and Cemetery Road, about a man-and a town-rocked by anarchy and tragedy, but unbowed in the fight to save those they love.
Fifteen years after the events of the Natchez Burning trilogy, Penn Cage is alone. Nearly all his loved ones are dead, and his old allies gone. Pursued by enemies and demoralized by a divided community, he's found sanctuary on a former cotton plantation above the Mississippi River. But Penn's self-imposed exile comes to an abrupt end when a brawl at a Bienville rap concert triggers a shooting - one that nearly takes the life of his daughter Annie.
Before the stunned city can process the tragedy, an arsonist starts torching antebellum plantation homes in Natchez and Bienville. When an unknown Black radical group claims the deadly fires as acts of historic justice, citywide panic ensues, driving a prosperous Southern town to the brink of race war. Drafted by Bienville's mayor to end the crisis and restore peace, Penn investigates the fires as casualties mount and armed marchers move toward a decisive clash.
But Penn suspects that the arson attacks may not be what they seem - not retribution by radicals, but false-flag strikes designed to trigger the very chaos he sees roiling the streets. For that mayhem provides state and county leaders the excuse to dissolve the Black-run Bienville city government and seize control. It's up to Penn and a band of locals to uncover the truth and expose those trying to destabilize the city.
In Southern Man, Greg Iles returns to the riveting style and historic depth that made the Natchez Burning trilogy a searing masterpiece and hurls the narrative fifteen years forward into our current moment - where America teeters on the fence between anarchy and salvation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A contentious 2024 presidential election anchors the epic latest entry in Iles's Penn Cage series (after Mississippi Blood). Former attorney Penn—now the mayor of Natchez, Miss.—is tending to his dying mother even as he fights his own battle with cancer. After deputies respond to a shooting at a hip-hop festival on the grounds of a former Mississippi plantation by raining bullets on the crowd, a Black liberation group takes credit for arsons at antebellum mansions across the South. Ultra-conservative radio host Robert E. Lee White capitalizes on these events as he launches his presidential campaign on a third-party ticket, promising he alone will bring order. Funded by dark money and popular on TikTok, White ignites Penn's suspicions from the get-go. As his candidacy gains steam and he risks provoking the country into a full-blown race war, Penn enlists his daughter, Annie, to help him dig up and expose the rot beneath White's campaign. Early on, Penn muses that "in the south, mysteries that date back 150 years retain the power to wreck families and destroy fortunes," and that sense of haunted history permeates the novel. Certain plot strands wear out their welcome across the novel's sprawling length, but in the end, Iles delivers an insghtiful, ambitious, and satisfying saga. This is a high water mark in a strong series.
Customer Reviews
Awful
Unadulterated American b/s - full of racism, sexism, guns, violence and hypocritical men full of double standards and aggrandising of war. They all seem to be war heroes and/or sports heroes. Father of the year leaves his daughter with his dead mother while she organises the funeral and arranges a plane he promised and he spends his time ‘coupling’ with his ex. He again abandons her, when she leaves hospital, so he can go play Rambo.
The inappropriate bursts of history in confronting situations is farcical.
The overriding problem seems to be men with their insecurities and constant quest to prove who has the biggest appendage. They are more ridiculous than heroic.
Everything wrong with America in one book.