Into the Fire

Natchez Burning by Greg Iles is the first book in the trilogy. (I started the series with the second novel The Bone Tree reviewed here.) 

This contemporary trilogy deals with the southern history of racism in America and its continuation in certain areas of Louisiana and Mississippi along with those who practice and protect their racism and corruption in law enforcement and government offices by executing anyone who threatens their power and position – or any of their own who dare to break their code. 

Mayor Penn Cage's beloved father, Dr. Tom Cage, is arrested for the murder of his former nurse, a once beautiful black woman named Viola Turner, who is dying from cancer. Her adult son (Lincoln) believes Dr. Cage is his father and believes Cage killed his mother, but Penn thinks the horrible members of the former Ku Klux Klan now calling themselves the Double Eagles are somehow responsible for this man's paternity since Viola was gang raped by them before moving to Chicago. To Penn, it's far more realistic that the Double Eagles are responsible for Viola's death even though she hadn't divulged anything about their crimes against her. And since the DA and so many others of their group are in law enforcement, the battle to help his father seems impossible.

In this book we're introduced to Henry Sexton, a journalist who has devoted his adult life to nailing the murderous actions of one "businessman" Brody Royal and the Double Eagles for the heinous crimes against members of the African-American community. Henry was particularly close to one of the victims who was savagely burned nearly to death and died shortly after being sprayed with a flame thrower. He was just one of the tortured slain.

Penn's fiancée Caitlin Masters admires Henry Sexton and wishes she had access to his information. When all of their lives are endangered because of what they've discovered, she asks Henry to join her newspaper in order to get maximum exposure for his articles about these evil band of murderers.  

But there are complications with Penn's dad and his former war buddy that lead to Penn's evacuation of his mom and his daughter. And then the FBI gets involved and it looks like Special Agent John Kaiser definitely intends to help. 

Through all of this, this vicious group of men plot the demise of all who are coming against them. Their threats are real and impending as Penn, Caitlin, and Henry discover. 

Natchez Burning is hard to take, the descriptions of these horrific crimes against the black community beyond comprehension. The evil this troop of men perpetrate upon anyone who gets in their way or defies them and against African-Americans in particular is sustained through generations, and the psychopathic actions of so many of them makes reading this novel difficult. These characters are the worst representatives of humanity. 

I don't know if all of Ile's many novels are like this trilogy, but these first two start slowly, lay a lot of history on the reader, and then accelerate the intensity of the story as it moves to a stunning conclusion. For me, at times the subtle political points are sometimes correct and other times dramatically incorrect.

The most memorable point for me is made on page 733 of the hardbound book. It's a quote from the wicked Brody Royal, and it  reads: "I bought myself a source at the Examiner [Caitlin's newspaper]. Took a page from Forrest Knox's book. Remarkable how cheaply you can buy a journalist. I should have remembered." Especially true today.

Much profanity and vulgarity. Terrible examples of unadulterated racism and the resulting atrocities. Much godless behavior and atheism. 

Father, only you change hearts. The travesty of sin in the human race brought Jesus here to die for us. Thank you for your rescue. We're all desperate for you whether we know it or not. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.