Turning Angel

Book excerpt: #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mississippi Blood and The Bone Tree keeps the secrets of the South alive in this “powerful…heartfelt…entirely gripping” (The Washington Post) novel of infatuation, murder, and sexual intrigue set in his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. When the nude body of a beautiful young female student is found near the Mississippi River, the entire community is shocked—but no one more than Penn Cage, who discovers that his best friend, Drew Elliott, was entangled in a passionate relationship with the girl and may be accused of her murder. On the surface, Kate Townsend seems the most unlikely murder victim imaginable. A star student and athlete, she’d been accepted to Harvard and carried the hope and pride of the town on her shoulders. But like her school and her town, Kate also had a secret life—one about which her adult lover knew little. Penn will do all he can to exonerate Drew, but in a town where the gaze of a landmark cemetery statue—the Turning Angel—never looks away, Penn finds himself caught on the jagged edge of blackmail, betrayal, and deadly violence. By the time Penn arrives at the shattering truth, this quiet Southern town will never be the same and “Turning Angel will have you wondering where Greg Iles has been all your life” (USA TODAY).