The Bone Tree
Don’t miss the latest Natchez Burning novel, SOUTHERN MAN
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles comes the second novel in his Natchez Burning trilogy of riveting crime fiction―which also includes Natchez Burning and the upcoming Mississippi Blood―an epic trilogy of blood and race, family and justice, featuring Southern lawyer Penn Cage.
In this gripping suspense novel, former prosecutor Penn Cage and his fiancée, reporter and publisher Caitlin Masters, have barely escaped with their lives after being attacked by wealthy businessman Brody Royal and his Double Eagles, a KKK sect with ties to some of Mississippi’s most powerful men. But the real danger has only begun as FBI Special Agent John Kaiser warns Penn that Brody wasn’t the true leader of the Double Eagles. The puppeteer who actually controls the terrorist group is a man far more fearsome: a man tied to shadowy secret societies and the chief of the state police’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Forrest Knox.
The only way Penn can save his father, Dr. Tom Cage―who is fleeing a murder charge amid widespread police corruption bent on killing him―is either to make a devil’s bargain with Knox or destroy him. While Penn desperately pursues both options, Caitlin uncovers the real story behind a series of unsolved civil rights murders, a historical mystery that may hold the key to the Double Eagles’ downfall. The trail leads her deep into the past, into the black backwaters of the Mississippi River, to a secret killing ground used by slave owners and the Klan for over two hundred years . . . a place of terrifying evil known only as “the bone tree.”
The Bone Tree is an explosive, action-packed Southern Gothic thriller full of twisting intrigue and deadly secrets, a tale that explores the conflicts and casualties that result when the darkest truths of American history come to light. It puts us inside the skin of a noble man who has always fought for justice―now finally pushed beyond his limits.
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Greg Iles
Greg Iles was born in Germany in 1960, where his father ran the US Embassy Medical Clinic during the height of the Cold War. His mother was raised on a subsistence farm in Louisiana and began picking cotton at the age of three. Iles spent his youth in Natchez, Mississippi, and graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983. While attending Ole Miss, Greg lived in the cabin where William Faulkner and his brothers listened to countless stories told by “Mammy Callie,” their beloved nanny, who had been born enslaved.
Iles wrote his first novel in 1993, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess, which became the first of seventeen New York Times bestsellers. Primarily set in the Deep South, his later novels have been made into films, translated into more than twenty languages, and published in more than thirty-five countries worldwide. His new novel will continue the story of Penn Cage, after the epic trilogy that ended with New York Times #1 bestseller Mississippi Blood.
Iles is a member of the legendary lit-rock group “The Rock Bottom Remainders.” Like bandmate Stephen King, Greg returned to the musical stage after recovering from his injuries, and joined the band for their "final" two shows in Los Angeles in 2012. A nonfiction memoir by the band, titled Hard Listening, was published in 2018, but by then the band had begun playing shows again. In 2020 they released a social-distancing video produced by Greg and his son Mark, called "DON'T Stand By Me!" They just don't know when to quit.
Iles passed away from a 29-year battle with Mulitple Myeloma on August 15, 2025. He lived in Natchez, Mississippi with his wife Caroline and had four children.
Penn Cage
Penn Cage consists of seven books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
