The Quiet Game (Penn Cage Novels)

This was my first book of Greg Iles. I loved almost every page from the very beginning. I'll say more about my choice of word "almost" later in my review. The main character, Penn Cage, was a likeable protagonist, down to earth, sympathetic and morally admirable. The reader is drawn to him from the start of the book when we learned that he is deeply grieving from the loss of his wife to cancer. He realizes the potential for failing to comfort his daughter who looks for her mother in the women that Penn encounters. Not far into the story line, Penn decides to move back to his childhood home in Natchez. His parents become interesting additions to the story line. His father Tom Page is the local doctor and his mother is a caring grandmother. It is in this idyllic homecoming that all begins to fall apart in Penn's life. He is asked by the mother and widow of a 30 year old murder victim to solve the murder. He is reluctant to get involved until he realizes the shoddy investigation of the crime and the possible connection the murder has to do with Penn's long time nemesis Judge Marston. The book rockets off into mysterious directions. His life is threatened, as well as the lives of his parents and young daughter. His childhood sweetheart and the daughter of Judge Marston suddenly pull him into conflicting situations and feelings. We're introduced to many interesting characters including the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover who may have been involved in the cover up of the 30 year old murder. I found myself wanting to spend more time each day in the pursuit of reading this book. I was distracted by the possibility that Penn was being seduced into reigniting his affair with his childhood sweetheart. I didn't like her and I didn't want Penn to like her either. These were my "almost" pages. I worried about Penn's moral compass which fortunately was never really compromised. The book ended satisfactorily with a few unexpected twists and turns. I knew from the onset that I had found a reliable mystery writer which is always a great treasure for me. I am now reading my second book by Greg Iles.

A most poignant tale of racial and family catastrophe with all the aspects of a thriller! Superb characterization by Iles. He is truly one of the great writers of our day - and most likely of all times. The trauma and joys in all his books cross over all generations beginning from the beginning of time! Though this is the first in a stream of Penn Cage tales, all of which I have read, I just now have at last read the very first one. Iles has an amazing way of writing each of the Penn Cage books in such a way that one doesn't need to read them in order to follow the whole story because he deftly inserts previous needful facts in each subsequent tale. I inadvertently began with NATCHEZ BURNING, a book that deserves all and more of the accolades it received when it came out, and have just now come to the very first one, THE QUIET GAME. Iles is an amazing from the heart and life writer. I am happy to have all his books on my Kindle and on my shelf! His endings in each book have been perfect.

Taking a recommendation from a work colleague, I undertook this, the first, in Greg Iles wonderful Penn Cage series and I was definitely not disappointed. In “The Quiet Game,” Iles pens an amazingly literate and seductive crime/thriller novel, one loaded not only with an abundance of surprisingly erudite narrative but a superlative plot/storyline as well. This is really how all works of this genre should read and be structured.Our protagonist, lawyer and writer Penn Cage, has just lost his wife to cancer and his life in Houston, Texas is essentially over. Returning to his native Natchez, Mississippi with his young daughter, his initial idea is to settle in with his parents while he thinks through a new course of life. Discovering that both his parents are under undue stress upon arrival, Cage soon learns of intrigue involving blackmail concerning his father, a long-devoted town doctor, by a disreputable former police officer slowly dying of cancer. Becoming involved, of course, Cage quickly learns that this affair has deep roots leading back to 1968 and the unsolved death of Del Payton, a local black man blown up in his car, at the factory he worked at, under highly suspicious circumstances.As Penn becomes more and more involved, at first simply to free his father of the mysterious overt stress, he uncovers the true nature of the crime. Soon the storyline expands into one involving the highest reaches of Natchez, state and federal government, dragging up a significant portion of his own past as well. Becoming romantically linked to Caitlin Masters, an upcoming national newspaper reporter who becomes a crucial ally in solving the case, Cage puts his substantial reputation on the line to bring down a powerful local judge and FBI leader…Iles is brilliant in his exposition and plotline here. Smart, intriguing and captivating, this narrative has everything that readers of this genre enjoy. Indeed, Greg Iles has become a serious new addition to my detective/thriller series reading list.A work of genuine literary accomplishment, “The Quiet Game” impresses on many levels…outside of its belletristic value, it shines as an outstanding “who dunnit” storyline. This is a work that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend and I excitedly anticipate taking on the body of Iles “Penn Cage” novels.

Mr Iles has knocked one out of the park with this cracking, tightly-plotted thriller. Not a word is wasted in this slick crime novel - so there's none of that boring 'padding out' you find in so many novels these days. Not only is this a fast-paced and gripping read, it's also intelligently put together.It all begins with Penn Cage, and his four-year-old daughter, Annie returning to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. Penn is a former hot-shot prosecuting attorney, based in Housten. In recent times, he has tried his hand at writing legal thrillers, and has become very successful at it. He has returned to Natchez because he and his daughter are still trying to come to terms with the death of his wife, who passed away from cancer the previous year. Penn has therefore decided to take some time out to live with his parents for a while. During his stay he finds out that his father is being blackmailed. Penn discretely looks into the matter, and ends up opening a can of worms. And that folks, is as much as I’m prepared to reveal. This is a terrific novel - so my advice is to grab yourself a copy, sit back in your favourite armchair and enjoy it! If this brief teaser of a review has been of use to you, please spend a second to click the ‘Helpful’ button below - many thanks 🙂

It can all be down to luck, cannot it? Suppose you have a favourite author, you buy all his/her books and lap them up. Suppose s/he then writes an "off" book, all authors do, you just forgive them this once and await their return to form the next time. But what if the first book you picked up was an "off" book and you never read that author again? This happened to me with this author, I bought an early book, was unimpressed and avoided his since. I selected this book mainly on price, was going on holiday and wanted a few books with me and, to be honest, the summary of the book appealed.Wow, what a tale. Expertly crafted, with a fine line in dialogue and characterisation, I was sucked in. This is the tale of Penn Cage, a some time successful lawyer and an author, now a widow with a young child that he is fully responsible for. After attempting, and failing, to maintain 'business as usual in New York, he returns to his family home with child in tow. There, he finds his father, a well respected family doctor, at the end of his career, the victim of blackmail. Feeling guilty about not being close enough to his parents to have identified this sooner, Penn sets about using his skills as a lawyer and journalist to get to the truth. Set in Nantchez, La, a lot of the tensions date back to the murder of a young black man back in the late 60s and the failed efforts to investigate fairly and vigorously at the time. some of the key players from then are still around today and don't want the status quo rocked after all these years.Expertly told, weaving in enough historical context to help understand the attitudes of the time, this fine tale takes the reader along a great journey.Now, my dilemma is this: of the two books by this author that I have now read, one of which failed to impress at all, and this one which is superb; which is typical of his output? I guess I'm going to have to buy a third one (it will be the next in this series) to find out!

What a great book. This is the first novel by Greg Iles that I have read, and it definitely won’t be the last. At one point during my reading I thought “this could be the best book I have ever read”.The Quiet Game pulls you in from the start. The characters are well-drawn and you grow to like and understand the main man – Penn Cage. The history and atmosphere of Natchez, Mississippi is superbly conveyed by this native of the area. The storyline incorporates elements of a legal thriller, a crime thriller, romance, action adventure and family drama. Add to this a strong element of America’s deep south slave-trade history, and you have a winner. Oh, plus a satisfying conclusion.Penn Cage number two, here I come!

Having read the Natchez Burning trilogy (Penn Cages books 4, 5 & 6), I decided to start at the beginning of the Penn Cage series and I found yet another fabulous story, packed full of action, intrigue, corruption, evil and deceit, right to the highest levels of American government institutions. Greg Iles is a master story-teller of the highest calibre. He paints an often beautiful picture of a town and an area (at least for those who have money and are white), the disparate lives of those who live there and the terrible corruption and moral bankruptcy that exists from the lowliest to the highest levels of society. Part of me now wants to visit Natchez to see the town for myself, yet part of me knows that such a beautiful place was built upon the evil of slavery and is tainted forever - it's the apple in the Garden of Eden with a worm inside.

Convoluted plot that doesn’t feel real. Pen Cage the main character comes across as a holier than thou person along with ultra virtuous parents. He feels like a card board cutout individual who can’t say or do anything wrong & not even likable.A prospective reader could try reading Sue Grafton’s A to Z series of books. Admittedly they do not have the same depth as Greg Iles books but the characters feel real especially the main person Kindsey Millhone. You even get to chuckle and smile at her in contrast to the relentless seriousness of Cage. The characters feel even real & for the most part likable