Get Ready: THE Title You Need To Know The Last Week of April
Readers advisors need to have just one book on the tip of their tongues next week.
Natchez Burning, Greg Iles, (HarperCollins/Morrow; HarperLuxe; HarperAudio)
A favorite with booksellers, Iles’s first book in 6 years is an IndieNext Pick for May. It’s also catching on with librarians. Wendy Bartlett at Cuyahoga Public Library (Ohio) bet on it with a hefty order and recently alerted the staff about it:
If James Lee Burke and John Grisham were merged in a transporter accident aboard the Enterprise, the result would be Greg Iles. And the real drama surrounding Natchez Burning, this 700-some-page novel is Iles’ own story. Iles was severely injured in a car accident several years ago. As a result, book has been delayed and delayed. It is a kind of miracle that Greg survived, and that the book did too. Whether it’s those pent-up years of frustrated storytelling, or just Iles’ natural maturation as a novelist, I can’t tell you, but I can tell you that Natchez Burning is a great page turner with excellently drawn characters. Iles’ fans will welcome back with open arms the series anchor, Penn Cage. Now the mayor of Natchez, a long-buried civil rights era hate crime may or may not have involved Cage’s own family. Old secrets, old hatreds, and old memories are germane to the investigation, and the sense of place is rendered flawlessly. You’ll feel like you lived it.
When customers say, “I just want something good to read,” hand ‘em this one. Oh, and check out www.gregiles.com. He’s a fun writer to follow, and a pretty cool guy to boot.
Looks like the staff is passing on the recommendation; holds are now nearly as high as the aggressive order.
Browsers may also be grabbed by this cover blurb from Stephen King, “Natchez Burning is extraordinarily entertaining and fiendishly suspenseful. I defy you to start it and find a way to put it down.”
Ordering information for this and our selection of other titles arriving next week, is available on our downloadable spreadsheet New Title Radar, Week of 4/28/14