CEMETERY ROAD by Greg Iles
There are some authors who start out good and then get better and better with each new book they write or story they tell. Such an author is Greg Iles. I have been a fan of his since I first picked up a book by him many, many years ago. I don’t remember which one it was but I do remember being enthralled and promising myself I would read anything by him I could get my hands on. Well I have gotten my hands on Iles’ new novel CEMETERY ROAD and he has once more held me captive by his words of story, character and description.
Reading this story of modern day Mississippi is like reading a smash up of stories by Tennessee Williams and Pat Conroy. From Williams we get the sultry, sexy relations between men and women who should know better than to go from one adulterous situation to another. From Conroy we get the descriptions and the nostalgia for everything southern. Conroy not only wrote about the South, he grieved for it and made the reader grieve for it.
The almost hero of this story is Marshall McEwen, a native born Mississippian who faced tragedy while still in his teens, and vowed to leave his hometown of Bienville as soon as possible.When he returns years later in order to help his mother take care of his ill father, and also to run the family newspaper, he finds the love of his life still there and in a way awaiting him. This is Jet Matheson, the woman Marshall has love since his teen years.
The problem is Jet is married to Marshall’s one time best friend Paul Matheson. They have a son but that does not stop Marshall and Jet from picking up their relationship and moving it forward at full throttle. Marshall and Jet are bonded by their passion yet live on the edge of fear, lest someone finds out about their affair.
In addition to adulterous love affairs CEMETERY ROAD also focuses on the family relationship between a father and his son. Then there are the struggles for power between the haves and have nots. Add in a murder or two and you have enough flammable combustion to power three or four stories. But Iles keeps the lid on this one and lets it play its way across the languid days of life on the Mississippi.
While maintaining the originality of his story and characters Iles does create Jet in a way that brings to mind “Maggie the Cat” from Williams’ “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof.” Oh if only the young Elizabeth Taylor was still around to play the role in the movie version. But then it would also be nice to have Paul Newman in his prime to play Marshall.
There is so much good storytelling going in in this novel that is hard to even hint at how much readers will enjoy it. This is a book to relish, to savor, to absorb. You will not want it to end but hope that maybe Iles is back in trilogy mood as he was with his three previous novels. Sadly there is no indication that he has even a sequel on his mind.
The dictionary defines a saga as a long, involved story, account, or series of incidents. By that definition CEMETERY ROAD is a saga. Greg Iles has taken his time with laying his story down and has sprinkled it with just the right amount of description to makes Bienville as real in your mind as Natchez. Then he has taken some of the tropes about the South and burned the ground with evil wealthy males, delicate southern beauties and single female bookstore owners. He is even brash enough to have Jerry Lee Lewis come to town for a one night performance.
CEMETERY ROAD has it all because Iles mixes it together with brilliance. It is a one of a kind story that will give you hours upon hours of reading pleasure and then more hours of reflective visiting of the plot. It is a book not to be missed, and now that I have read it I am counting the days until the next Iles novel comes along.
CEMETERY ROAD is published by William Morrow. It contains 752 pages and sells for $28.99.
Jackie K Cooper
www.jackiekcooper.com
