There is no low to which rich and powerful white men will not sink.

Makes me think of dystopias I've read. Seemingly the only way to destroy something (an organization, an administration) is to do it from within.

But what if there isn't anyone less-evil in the group? How to fight when it's futile? How to live when you've lost everything?

Oh, Jet. You shave your pubic hair for Paul, and let it grow out for Marshall.

What is YOUR preference, Jet? It's your body.

Book blurb…
Successful journalist Marshall McEwan is forced to return home. His father is dying, his mother is struggling to keep the family newspaper from failing, and the town is in the midst of an economic rebirth that might be built upon crimes that reach into the state capitol - and perhaps even to Washington. More disturbing still, Marshall's high school sweetheart, Jet, has married into the family of Max Matheson, patriarch of one of the families that rule Bienville through a shadow organization called the Bienville Poker Club.
When archeologist Buck McKibben is murdered at a construction site, Bienville is thrown into chaos. The ensuing homicide investigation is soon derailed by a second crime that rocks the community to its core. Power broker Max Matheson's wife has been shot dead in her own bed, and the only other person in it at the time was her husband, Max. Stranger still, Max demands that his daughter-in-law, Jet, defend him in court.
Without telling a soul, Marshall joins forces with Jet and begins digging into both murders. With Jet walking the dangerous road of an inside informer, they soon uncover a web of criminal schemes that undergird the town's recent success. But these crimes pale in comparison to the secret at the heart of the Matheson family ...

My thoughts…
Wow, I loved this gripping story. An amazing plot with a web of deceit that kept me reading non-stop. It is so hard to know who to cheer for because it changes so often during the story.
Power and corruption are the key elements to the group of people that seem to control the town of Bienville and its people. Creating the perfect setting for characters to save not only the town but each other.
Fully absorbed to the very last page.

A Netgalley read. First Greg Iles read and what a surprise. With murder, revenge, infidelity, torture, corruption, and sex thrown into the mix makes for an exciting story if well written. Cemetery Road has all and more with great characters, superb plot, then an ending that came out of nowhere. If exciting, fast moving, intelligent stories is your taste then I highly recommend Cemetery Road.

Thankyou to NetGalley, HarperCollins Publishers Australia and the author, Greg Iles, for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of Cemetery Road in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
What can I say.... this book was definitely worth staying up into the early hours to finish reading. Nothing else I could say would accurately reflect just how good this book is. I could never do it justice.
Definitely a book that should be read.

Marshall McEwan is a Pullitzer prize-winning journalist, author and TV anchor who returns to his hometown Bienville Mississippi because of the failing health of his father. Marshall has avoided returning to Bienville since his beloved brother, the town's local sporting hero and all-round good guy drowned following a teenage stunt that was Marshall's fault. Marshall's relationship with his father was never the same and the complex relationship, and Marshall's own responses to his own grief and loss as as both a father and a son are strong themes throughout this book. Marshall intends to bide his time running his father's local paper the Watchman and once his father passes head back to Washington to resume his life.

Upon returning home Buck McKibben, Marshall's surrogate father figure and local archaeologist is found dead at a construction site. Investigations reveal Buck was murdered and Marshall vows to find the offender and bring them to justice. Buck has alot of enemies as his archaeological finds on the site could impact the entire financial future of Bienville. A powerful group of men known as the Bienville Poke Club will do anything to see the homicide investigation quashed.

The reader walks with Marshall through a series of complex relationships and emotions. There is loss, grief, deception, betrayal, and corruption. Marshall's relationships are explored in colourful detail by Iles. Marshall's relationships with his parents, his brother Adam, his deceased child (also Adam), his friend Paul Matheson who is heir to the Matheson fortune and lineage within the Bienville Poker Club from his powerful father Max, and Jet who is Paul's wife and the love of Marshall's life.

When Max's socialite wife Sally is found dead Max is the prime suspect. It's a surprise then when Jet acts as Max's lawyer. However there is something simmering away below the surface, a secret that threatens Jet's future with Marshall. Is the secret the reason Sally was killed or is it what Sally knows about the Poker Club and it's members?

Cemetery Road has everything. It is long and it takes some time to get to the pointy end of the action. The balance is in the richness of the characters and the time Greg Iles takes to flesh out the relationships and 'interconnectedness' between them. There are some statements that might be politically topical in the US (Trump references) but I read them as part of the plot as fiction rather than being reflective of any one person's belief or truth (as an Aussie it was the easy road). There were also some confronting sexual descriptions, mostly from the mouth of Max and whilst hard-hitting were to be expected from this character.

In all this book was hard to put down and I would recommend it. I gave it five starts as it had everything I like, well developed characters and relationships, intrigue, action as well as being enjoyable and entertaining.

Thank you to Greg Iles and Netgalley for the digital copy of this book. I understand it was published during March 2019. I will be adding Greg's other works to my to be read list.

Link to goodreads review:
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40604810-

Will also be reviewed on my instagram page @aplace_inthesun.