His writing style is gripping, making you want to read just one more chapter to see what’s going to happen. It’s not wonderful prose, but there are a few passages in the book that made me stop and stare for a moment. I’ve always loved Iles’ writing, even when I found his characters thoroughly unlikable. Throw in a wife who has been sexually distant with him since she lost a baby and a business partner who’s a ladies’ man and a lout, and you’ve got a recipe for an intriguing thriller. What keeps you reading is how Waters is slowly convinced that Eva is telling him the truth - but every time he’s sure, a voice of reason steps in and points out how Eva could be leading him on. Iles walks the fine line between the supernatural and the mundane, keeping the reader guessing which is the truth.
Iles deftly handles the intricate plot he’s developed here, with Eva convincing Waters that she’s the reincarnation of his dead lover, a woman so obsessed that she would do anything to be with him. The result of this could destroy his life and lead to his imprisonment for a murder he can’t even remember if he committed. But a stray glance from a beautiful real estate agent named Eva, and a whispered word that he never thought he would hear again, has brought the past back to the present. In college, he dated Mallory Candler, a woman he loved deeply but who eventually tried to kill him and then one of his girlfriends after they broke up, before finally marrying and then being brutally murdered in New Orleans. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for this idyllic life to crash in flames around him. He’s got a lovely wife, a wonderful daughter, and he’s well-respected throughout the community. John Waters is living a beautiful life in his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi. It’s a page-turner that kept me reading into the night, and it actually has some interesting characters, too!
Surprisingly, it’s probably now one of my favorite Iles books, with fewer of the things that annoyed me about his more recent efforts. When I saw 2002’s Sleep No More in a bargain bin, I couldn’t resist.
I’ve read the last three Greg Iles books and enjoyed them for the most part but, other than his second book, Black Cross, I hadn’t read any of his earlier novels.