Southern man / Greg Iles.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Greg Iles is one of America's great storytellers. -Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The hugely anticipated new Penn Cage novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Natchez Burning trilogy and Cemetery Road, about a man--and a town--rocked by anarchy and tragedy, but unbowed in the fight to save those they love

Fifteen years after the events of the Natchez Burning trilogy, Penn Cage is alone. Nearly all his loved ones are dead, his old allies gone, and he carries a mortal secret that separates him from the world. But Penn's exile comes to an end when a brawl at a Mississippi rap festival triggers a bloody mass shooting--one that nearly takes the life of his daughter Annie.

As the stunned cities of Natchez and Bienville reel, antebellum plantation homes continue to burn and the deadly attacks are claimed by a Black radical group as historic acts of justice. Panic sweeps through the tourist communities, driving them inexorably toward a race war.

But what might have been only a regional sideshow of the 2024 Presidential election explodes into national prominence, thanks to the stunning ascent of Robert E. Lee White, a Southern war hero who seizes the public imagination as a third-party candidate. Dubbed "the Tik-Tok Man," and funded by an eccentric Mississippi billionaire, Bobby White rides the glory of his Special Forces record to an unprecedented run at the White House--one unseen since the campaign of H. Ross Perot.

To triumph over the national party machines, Bobby evolves a plan of unimaginable daring. One fateful autumn weekend, with White set to declare his candidacy in all fifty states, the forces polarizing America line up against one another: Black vs. white, states vs. the federal government, democracy vs. Fascism. Teaming with his fearless daughter (now a civil rights lawyer) and a former Black Panther who spent most of his life in Parchman Prison, Penn tears into Bobby White's pursuit of the Presidency and ultimately risks a second Civil War to try to expose its motivation to the world, before the America of our Constitution slides into the abyss.

In Southern Man, Greg Iles returns to the riveting style and historic depth that made the Natchez Burning trilogy a searing masterpiece and hurls the narrative fifteen years forward into our current moment--where America itself teeters on the brink of anarchy.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

The latest Penn Cage novel is set a decade and a half after the events of Iles' spectacular Natchez Burning trilogy. Cage, the attorney, author, and former mayor of Natchez, is feeling at odds with himself. Virtually everyone he has ever loved is gone; he is alone and withdrawn from the world. When the neighboring cities of Natchez and Bienville are rocked by a mass shooting (white cops, Black victims) and the deliberate destruction of pre-Civil War homes, Cage is forced to put his personal struggles aside. This astonishingly good novel is very much a product of its time, a story of violence and racial unrest in the aftermath of the Trump presidency in which one of the central characters, Robert E. Lee White, a war hero running as an independent for the nation's highest office, seizes on the country's post-Trump disarray as a way to catapult himself into the White House. Reluctantly, Cage finds himself doing what he'd swore he'd never again do: step into the line of fire and shine a light into the darkness. Politically charged and written in rich, visually evocative prose, this is Iles at his reader-thrilling best. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Iles is a powerhouse and gains more readers with each book.

Kirkus Book Review

The country is on fire in this expansive political thriller. Iles fans will recognize the character of Penn Cage from several of the author's previous novels, including his acclaimed Natchez Burning trilogy. The prosecutor turned author turned mayor of Natchez, Mississippi, returns in this novel, and he's not doing well. His mother is in poor health, having suffered a series of strokes while undergoing cancer treatment, and he himself is suffering from myeloma that he fears might kill him soon: "I must follow her sooner than she knew, and by the same route, the same dread affliction." Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to rest: He's in attendance at a hip-hop concert being held at a former cotton plantation when gunfire erupts. His daughter, Annie, is injured in the shooting; one of Penn's acquaintances, Robert E. Lee "Bobby" White, helps treat her wounds. Bobby, a disabled veteran and radio show host, also happens to be readying for a third-party run for president, but has a secret that he'll do anything to keep hidden. All this happens as a series of arsons plagues the South, and America is plunged into heightened racial strife--which Bobby hopes to exploit to get to the White House. Penn, however, is determined not to let that happen. There's a lot going on in Iles' novel, but he manages to weave the many threads beautifully; nothing gets lost in the shuffle. This is a genuinely terrifying book because of its plausibility--Iles perfectly captures the tinderbox that America is in the post-Trump era. (As Penn ruefully reflects, "I watched in disbelief as businessmen voted for a repeat bankrupt…women for an admitted sexual assaulter, patriots for a draft dodger who would sell his country's secrets for trivial gain, educated men for an ignoramus.") This is a perfectly done political thriller with genuine resonance. Astonishing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.