Mississippi Blood

I finished reading Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles last night. It was a big book, right up there with Roots and Gone with the Wind at about 750 pages. It took me a while to read it (2 weeks), but that wasn't because it wasn't enjoyable, it was simply because of all that has been going on in life.

The book was extraordinary. I was unaware when I bought it that it was the third book in a trilogy. Learning that it was before I started reading caused me to put off starting it. I've done that before, tried to start reading a series from point other than the beginning, and typically, it hasn't gone well. I've been left confused and more than a little lost. That wasn't the case with Mississippi Blood. Iles did such a masterful job of explaining past events that I didn't feel confused or like the whole book was a game of catching up. It could easily be a stand alone book, but I enjoyed it so much that I plan to read the other two books...even though I already know how it all ultimately turns out.

The subject of the books is the complicated issue of race in Mississippi. They span from the 1960's to the 2000's. Iles is glaringly honest and brutally frank, so these may not be for the faint-hearted reader. Some scenes are intense and gory, but they paint a picture of a culture I know very little about.

I can't do justice to these books, so here is a video with the author himself talking about them.