Penn Cage novels

When former prosecutor Penn Cage returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, he doesn't find the peace he desperately craves. He finds that his own father is being blackmailed by a corrupt ex-cop. And when Penn investigates, he uncovers a murderous secret--and the town's violent 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. Penn Cage's father, Dr. Tom Cage, stands accused of murder, and each effort to defend him unearths new, shocking secrets, leaving Penn to question whether he ever really knew his father at all. At issue is the murder of Tom's former...