Greg Iles: Blood Memory

Scribner (Hardcover), ISBN 0743234707

As Greg Iles' latest thriller opens, Dr. Cat Ferry, a forensic dentist who specializes in deciphering human bites, receives an ominous phone call. The FBI needs her help analyzing the bite marks on the latest victim of a serial killer. But Cat can't face the crime scene. A panic attack paralyzes her. As additional horrors precipitate more blackouts, she struggles to understand the root of her breakdowns.

Greg Iles' gripping thriller moves from the New Orleans Garden District where Cat Ferry works as an FBI consultant, to her family's antebellum estate in Natchez, Mississippi. In Natchez, her grandfather rules his tormented family and tries to cover up the truth of Cat's father's death. In New Orleans, she struggles not only with her alcoholism but also her complicated relationship with a married police detective.

Repressed memory, child abuse, family secrets and perfect details that jump off the page and pull you in make this Iles' best novel yet. A cell phone wrapped in a baggie to protect it from a raging storm, bloody footprints in Cat's childhood bedroom revealed by forensic chemicals, the sketches made by her Vietnam veteran father, all bring this thriller to life.

The complicated story interwoven with psychological twists and turns proves that Iles can hold his own in any genre. As he explores the age-old themes of predator vs. prey and parent-child relationships, we realize we've landed in the hands of a master. Don't miss this one. It's a book you can't put down and won't soon forget.

Augusta Scattergood

Augusta Scattergood, a librarian and member of SCBWI, reads and reviews books from her home in New Jersey.

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