The Bone Tree

An unparalleled master of the suspense novel, “Iles is a talented writer who puts the horror in a believable context,” raved The Washington Post about his New York Times bestseller The Devil’s Punchbowl . Now, Iles amps up the suspense in familiar territory, where crime, sex, and intrigue are relentlessly present in a steamy, southern small town.

Penn Cage faces a son’s worst nightmare—having his father stand accused of murder. Worse, each effort to defend the legendary Dr. Tom Cage unearths new, shocking secrets, leaving Penn to question whether he ever really knew his father at all. When Viola Turner, Tom Cage’s former nurse, is found dead in her sister’s house, Penn’s old nemesis, district attorney Shad Johnson, is quick to point the finger at Tom Cage, citing Tom’s decades-old relationship with his ex-nurse. Now, Penn must explore the dangerous territory of his father and Viola’s shared history, set squarely in the most harrowing years of civil-rights-era Mississippi.

In Natchez, where the past is never truly “past,” long-buried secrets tend to turn lethal when uncovered. And for Penn Cage, the cost of solving this case will be no exception.