“I” is for Greg Iles

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise, reaches “I” this week. I have chosen to profile American author, Greg Iles.

He was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1960. His father was in charge of the U.S. Embassy Medical Clinic. The family returned to the United States and he grew up in Natchez, Mississippi.

He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983 with a degree in English. Iles and John Grisham were both at Ole Miss at the same time. Grisham graduated in law in 1981.

He was a musician before he was a writer. After getting married (his wife is a dentist) he decided to turn to writing. It was a year where he spent 50 of 52 weeks on the road. On his website he discusses the start of his writing career:

When the band finally imploded, I was in Mobile Alabama at 3 a.m. on New Year’s Eve, standing at a phone booth in 28-degree weather. I was 30 years old, my wife was in school, and I had $9,000 to my name. I drove home to New Orleans, shut myself in our apartment, surrounded myself with library books and started working 18 hours a day. Literally. I gave myself one year to write and sell a novel…… I used my best buddy and fellow thriller fan as a sounding board …… When I was finished, I had a manuscript 241,000 words long, almost three times the length of an average thriller today. I was consciously trying to write a bestseller at the time, using as my models Jack Higgins, Fredrick Forsyth, and Hans Hellmut Kirst. I owe a great deal to the agent who agreed to represent me then, Natasha Kern, of Portland, Oregon. Natasha organized an auction, and after a couple of nail-biting months, I had a 2-book deal with Dutton books worth $125,000— five times my annual income at the time.

His first book featured the Nazi, Rudolph Hess, in Spandau Phoenix. I believe I read the book but it is too long ago to remember details.

Since that time he has steadily turned out books. He has 13 books and is working on a Penn Cage book due for publication this year.

He was in a bad car accident in 2011 and lost part of his right leg. He has recovered and is back writing.

Iles is in a literary band, The Rock Bottom Remainders, with Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Matt Groening and James McBride.

I have read several of his books but not yet posted any reviews. Of writers I have read in the last 15 years I am probably most ambivalent about Iles.

I liked The Quiet Game with Penn Cage in Natchez.

I found Mortal Fear with a serial killer stalking victims over the internet an interesting thesis but not his best book.

Blood Memory was alright but my reading was affected because I do not believe in the reliability of recovered memories from personal experiences in court cases.

Turning Angel with Penn Cage I thought was skilfully done but the body count was high for me.

Third Degree was a thriller that had me race through the final 150 pages.

Out of the 5 books – 2 I liked a lot, 2 I would not recommend and 1 was alright. I think I would have to find favourable reviews I consider reliable before I would return to Iles.