Review of Greg Iles' "Turning Angel"

Sorry this review is about "Turning Angel" and not "The Quiet Game".

I started reading this book on December 17th, 2010.

Page 272: This is such a great book, the first book I've ever read by Iles. The three basic characters are 17 year old Kate Townsend, her lover Dr. Drew Elliot and his friend and lawyer, Penn Cage. The book starts off with Townsend's body floating down a river, obviously she's dead. Iles' prologue handles this extremely well. She's naked from the waist down. After her body is found, Elliot has a confession to make to Cage. He has been sleeping with Townsend and insists he's in love with her. Cage is both disgusted by his friend's bad choices but also loyal to a friend.

There are other characters like Cage's daughter, Annie and her babysitter, Mia. It seems there may be some inappropriate opportunities for Cage with Mia. Annie innocently asks her Dad if he possibly would marry Mia. He says "no" and explains why. Cage already has a girlfriend, Caitlyn, although her motives don't seem to be 100% pure. I don't think Cage will give into temptation, although he may want to. We have a district attorney, Shad Johnson, who wants to use this case to spring board him to being mayor of Natchez, Mississippi. There's also foreign exchange student and drug dealer Marko Bakic. In addition we have Cyrus, local drug dealer and possible Kate Townsend lover/rapist/murderer. Last but not least is the faceless Asian gang. We know very little about them, other than they are really bad people.

I'm at page 272, not even half done, and I'm wondering how all these various pieces fit. (Thank goodness in the end they do.) For this book my running question was did Drew kill Kate? At this point I'm going to say no, but I'm not 100% convinced of his innocence either. There are some characters set up to provide other potential killers of Kate. Some of those might have killed her, but some are just there to create question marks. I look forward to finishing this book.

Page 318: The body count is rising and all the bad guys seem to be in the wind. Penn Cage continues to track down the possible killers. There are now so many potential killers of Kate Townsend, that I'm feeling pretty confident that Drew didn't kill her. Although the 40 + Elliot shouldn't have been sleeping with the high school student, I believe that he thought he was in love with her. With as many twists and turns that are in this book, who knows what exactly is going on? Of course how much fun would it be if one could figure out what's going on?

If this same story was in a movie, I'd probably have turned off. The film makers would have probably focused on the sex and violence and just leave enough plot points so the story would be coherent. However one of the great things about books is all the story involved. In a well written novel, like this one, you can just dive in and enjoy. That's exactly what I'm doing. I can hardly wait to see what happens over the next 326 pages.

Page 446: I continue having a hard time putting this book down, I do have other things to do though. I'm not sure how Iles does it but the tension continues to rise. Drew Elliot, the prisoned possible killer, has almost become an afterthought in this book with so many other things going on.

We finally meet Penn's girlfriend, Caitlyn, and I'm not impressed. She seems to be the spoiled rich girl type. In fact, she seems like she might be on her way out. She seems to be wondering if there is more going on with him and Mia. However Penn continues to be a good boy and keeps Mia away. Although they are spending more time together and outside of their babysitting relationship. Caitlyn tells Penn that Mia is attracted to him.

Is Drew innocent of murder? If pressed to say either way, I would say no. However I would not be surprised if he did kill Kate. One thing for sure Drew is guilty of bad judgment.

We also meet Marko Bakic, one of many people that might have killed Kate Townsend. There is also a memorial at the local high school and we go to the funeral of Townsend and Cross. We also meet Cross's father and he has some information helpful to Penn.

Page 503, good job Penn on keeping it in your pants. Mia practically threw herself at him. He was tempted but his good sense overwhelmed his desire. Mia was able to sneak a kiss though. Cage didn't encourage her or stop her. Also his alleged girlfriend Caitlyn, made a rebound. Cage was able to fulfill his lust with the more society approved choice, Caitlyn. I'm not convinced of how sincere she is about their relationship. Does she really love him or is she just pumping him for information? No pun intended.

Also the dreaded Asian gangs have shown up in Natchez. They almost were able to kidnap Cage and Mia, but a helpful policeman saved the day. The Asian gangs continue to be faceless. Is this intentional on Iles part? If so, why? They are the only characters that aren't fleshed out. Also Penn's Mom and Dad headed to the relative safety of Jackson with Annie.

Page 590: One of the criticisms of the book is that these alleged smart men keep on hooking up with teenagers. First we had the accused murderer Drew hooking up with Kate. Then Mia throws herself at Penn, he thankfully resisted. Now we find out the high school's AD hooked up with a 16 year old. Yes, I agree that seems a bit ridiculous. This book is definitely not perfect.

We've finally met the last of the big three bad guys, Cyrus White. He kidnapped Cage, held him captive for about a week and kept him compliant with pure heroin. Cage turned into MacGyver and escaped his captors. (The book even acknowledges this by including a MacGyver reference.) He escapes, but he's having serious withdrawal issues.

Ellen Elliot also confesses to Penn that she killed Kate Townsend. Initially I believed her but then holes started appearing in her story. Although Ellen definitely has a motive. Townsend not only was having an affair with her husband, but she was also pregnant with his baby. It does appear she was one of the last people to see Kate alive and may have had something to do with her death. However it seems like she's not the only one. More and more the clues say that Drew didn't kill Kate. But who did?

I finished the book and I won't say anymore, I've given away enough. This is just a very satisfying read and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves great fiction. Everyone seemed to have got their just rewards, except for the innocent. It will be sad for me to lose characters that I've really grown attached to like Mia. But then again there are some really bad people I hope never to see in this series again.

I finished this book on December 23rd, 2010. I read these books out of order, this is actually the second Penn Cage novel. Now I plan on reading the first Penn Cage novel, "The Quiet Game".

themusicaddict