Search - Mortal Fear (Mississippi, Bk 1)

Greg Iles proves once again that everyone has secrets. And, it's our secrets that get us into trouble. There is the "perfect" couple with sexual secrets. There is a psychopath whose actual existence is linked to a sexual secret. When they meet, you get a roller-coaster ride with murders, man-hunts, and intrigue. And, of course, it is all set in the rural south.

This was the first Greg Iles book I read. It is very suspenseful from the start and at the end but lags a bit in the middle. Some of the book seems somewhat dated since it was written in the early days of internet message board such as Prodigy, when sending images represented a significant leap in technology. However, the interesting characters and nail-biting ending make it worth your credit... or at least a Book Bazaar BOGO. :-)

Whoof! This tale of murder and intrigue with a very heavy over- and undertone of rampant sexuality can best be subtitled 'Mary Shelley meets Nora Roberts'. Yes there's a 'monster' here, engaged in a string of murders and kidnappings with a sinister purpose, but the centerpiece of the tale is the brief affair the narrator had with his future wife's sister. In spite of the fact the couple, Harper and Drewe, were engaged in one of those mutual "I'm sure, but are you?" hesitation dances and had agreed to a year's moratorium on their romance, when Drewe's sister Erin shows up to seduce him Harper feels a wave of guilt which he keeps with him for three or four years, scratching and picking at it like a festering sore. Then, just as things are going to start heating up on the monster/killer scene, and just as Drewe announces she is ready to have a child of her own, Erin drops a bombshell in Harper's lap...he is the true father of her child, his niece. If the tale is marred in any way it lies with Iles' using this plot device to extreme. We are treated to a continual rehashing of the "affair", not only in terms of Harper's own stream-of-consciousness mea culpas but we also get to examine it again and again from the perspectives of every other character, some of whom are told about it and some of whom Harper only imagines telling them 'his deep, dark secret'. But that flaw was not enough to make me want to close the book before finishing (which I have done often...I do not suffer fools gladly) because Iles manages to walk the tightrope just so and I kept right at it, sleep be damned, until the monster was appropriately dispatched and everyone (well, most) lived happily ever after. Good read.

This is the second book by Greg Isles I've read. "Turning Angel" was better, but "Mortal Fear" is a good read as well.

This book was published (and is set) in the 1990s. It involves the murders of (mostly rich) members of an online erotic service called EROS. Our main character immediately falls under suspicion when he is the only one who notices (or seems to care) that the victims have something in common.

No mention of Facebook, Twitter, iPads, and barely the use of cell phones. In other words, refreshing. You'll even see ancient terms like "Compuserve," "pay phone" and "14400 baud."

It's not a typical serial killer, either. He (or she) is a genius, and seems to have no repeating pattern or signature.

Our hero has a big secret, and he also makes a huge mistake that any moron would have avoided. You'll probably cheer for him anyway.

Note: A fair amount of sex (both actual and via online chat rooms) is here, but it is somehow not as shocking as that in Isle's other book, "Turning Angel." Perhaps because we know "Mortal Fear" happened over a decade ago, and there are no underage victims in "Mortal Fear."