by Greg Iles
First published 2019
Marshall McEwan swore he would never return to Bienville, Mississippi. The trauma that drove him away at eighteen pushed him to become a successful Washington journalist and television personality. But when his father falls terminally ill, Marshall must come home to face his past. He finds his family's newspaper failing and his former love Jet Talal married into the powerful Matheson family. The town's elite Poker Club has promised salvation through a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill deal. Then two murders shatter the community just as the deal nears completion. Marshall teams up with Jet, who has access to Poker Club secrets through her husband, to investigate the killings. Their search uncovers explosive truths buried in Mississippi soil. The conspiracy reaches Washington and threatens to shake the Senate itself. As Marshall digs deeper, he discovers long-hidden secrets about his own history that he wishes he had never learned.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Bienville, Mississippi, Washington
Period: 21st-century
616 pages · Kindle Edition · William Morrow