Review: Penn Cage novella bridges gap to tease for the upcoming trilogy
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2014
It’s been five years since the last Penn Cage novel set in Natchez Mississippi. This 100-ebook-page quick-read novella is really just a prequel to our famous author Iles’ latest, “Natchez Burning”, the obligatory first chapter teaser of which is included with the ebook, as prelude to the author’s forthcoming three-book saga, his first publication since a nearly fatal auto accident. In this brief tale, his family has convened after Dad Tom has a serious heart attack; and we await with equal suspense as do his offspring whether he’ll survive. Meanwhile, most of the account has Penn relating a story about a rapist who took a light plea bargain, which Penn worked hard to overturn due to a mishap in the police lab doing the DNA workup. Moreover, Penn’s wife Sarah, fatally ill with cancer, is dying during that same time frame – and Penn’s ordeal with her death and their daughter made for several emotional scenes.So while the plot per se is really not the point, the “Death Factory” (referring to the number of capital-punishment cases pushed through in those days by the prosecution) definitely succeeded in whetting our appetite for the forthcoming trilogy in the return of one of the best thriller novelists of our era.