Greg Iles, The Bone Tree, A Book Report
The Bone Tree by Greg Iles
A Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith
Spoiler Alert
November 16, 2017
Setting
The second volume of Natchez Burning Trilogy is set in the mid 1960’s-to present day in Mississippi, Louisiana and other parts of the deep South during the time of desegregation, the Vietnam war, and assassinations of some of our country’s top leaders like John F. Kennedy, President, his brother Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
Characters
Penn Cage, Mayor of Natchez, Miss, ex-prosecutor in Houston, son of Tom Cage. Also, a successful novelist.
Dr. Tom Cage, beloved physician in Natchez, Mississippi, father of Penn Cage. In practice for 50 years. Lover of Viola Turner for a short time in the 1960’s. Former combat medic in the Korean war.
Viola Turner black nurse to Dr. Cage in Natchez, MI during the 1960’s.
Caitlin Masters, fiancée of Penn Cage and publisher/reporter of the Natchez Examiner, which was owned by her father, John Masters.
Special Agent John Kaiser, head of the FBI in Natchez, MI and leader of the team working with Penn Cage against the KKK and the Double Eagle.
Carlos Marcello, mob leader of criminal empire located in New Orleans. possibly leader behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
KKK, the Ku Klux Klan, an anti-black, racist organization formed after the Civil War to oppose race integration
Double Eagle, a violent offshoot of the KKK, working in Natchez, Mississippi and throughout the South, responsible for lynching, tortures, murders, rapes, kidnapping and assassinations from the mid-1960’s to the present day.
Glenn Morehouse, charter member of the Double Eagle in Natchez, Mississippi.
Henry Sexton, reporter of the weekly Concordia Beacon
Jimmy Revels, young black man, murdered by the Double Eagle in the 1960’s with his remains left in the Bone Tree, in the swamps out from Natchez.
Luther Davis, another young black man murdered by the Double Eagle. Used as bait to lure Robert Kennedy to Natchez where he would be a target for assassination.
Lincoln Turner, son of Viola Turner and possible son of Dr. Tom Cage. Arrived in Natchez accusing Dr. Cage of murder of his mother. A lawyer from Chicago.
Brody Royal, local millionaire, and power broker.
Frank Knox, founder and leader of the Double Eagle and possible shooter of John F. Kennedy in Dallas assassination.
Forrest Knox, son of Frank Knox and Chief of the Louisiana State Patrol, LSP, and candidate to be Superintendent of the Louisiana State Patrol.
John Masters, father of Caitlin Masters and owner of 27 newspapers throughout the south.
Shadrach Johnson, black District Attorney of Natchez with a long history of antipathy with Penn Cage.
Walt Garrity, former Texas Ranger, friend of Dr. Tom Cage with whom he had worked as medics in the Korean War.
Captain Ozan, subordinate to Forrest Knox on the Louisiana State Patrol. Helped Forrest enforce murders, kidnappings, and tortures carried out by the local police.
Mrs. Virginia Sexton, Henry Sexton’s mother.
Jordan Glass, Pulitzer winning photographer reporting on major stories worldwide, Married to John Kaiser, the FBI lead agent in the Double Eagle investigation.
The Bone Tree, a long-rumored dumping grounds of dead bodies that had been murdered by the Double Eagle.
Annie Cage, 11-year-old daughter of Penn Cage, granddaughter of Dr. Tom Cage.
Sheriff Walker Dennis,
Pooky Wilson a black man buried at the Bone Tree. Killed by Double Eagle group.
Snake Knox original member of the Double Eagle.
Sleepy Johnston, aka Gates Brown, killed in fire at Brody Royal’s house trying to help rescue
Dr. Drew Elliot, doctor at Tom Cage’s office.
Grimsby, hitman sent to kill Tom Cage and Walter Garrity.
Colonel MacKiever, Superintendent of the Louisiana State Patrol, and target of Forrest Knox who is trying to replace him in the top position of the State Police.
Carmelita, Walt Garrity’s girlfriend back in Texas.
Sonny Thornfield, one of the original Double Eagle.
Billy Knox, son of Snake and head of the Louisiana drug distribution ring.
Claude Devereux, attorney for Forrest Knox
Randall Regan, husband to Brody Royal’s daughter, enforcer for Brody. Killed in Brody’s mansion during the attack on Caitlin and Penn.
The Story
In this second volume of the Natchez Burning trilogy by Greg Isles, the story continues. John Kaiser, Special Agent for the FBI, was in Natchez to follow up on two threads of crimes that he had been chasing for several years.
Kaiser firmly believed that the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were planned and executed by the Double Eagle group of the Louisiana Ku Klux Klan.
Henry Sexton, reporter, who knew the most of anyone in the country about the Double Eagle group was in the hospital in Natchez. Henry was mostly investigating racist murders that the Double Eagles had conducted over a forty-year period.
The other thread that Kaiser was investigating was the murders of Jimmy Revels and Luther Davis believed to have been killed and left to rot at the Bone Tree in the swamps outside of Natchez in 1968.
The Double Eagles sought to kill Henry Sexton while he was in the hospital, but they missed Henry and instead killed his girlfriend who was there visiting him. Henry was moved to a more secure room of the hospital, but he used his mother to help him escape, carrying a shotgun, headed for a showdown with the Double Eagle band.
Dr. Cage and his Texas Ranger friend, Walt Garrity were on the run after shooting one of Forrest Knox’s Louisiana troopers.
Sleepy Johnson and Henry Sexton are killed trying to save Caitlin and Penn, who are being tortured in the basement of Brody Royal’s mansion. Royal, Reagan, and three of Brody’s bodyguards were also killed in a fire at Brody’s.
Special Agent John Kaiser’s main goal was to find and convict the true killer in the JFK assassination on November 22, 1963. He was stationed in the Natchez area and was fortified in his quest by the Patriot Act which was passed after the 9/11 attack in New York to protect American citizens against terrorists. Like the Knox family and the Double Eagles.
Another of the good guys in the book is Mayor Penn Cage of Natchez, Mississippi. His main goal was to protect his family, especially his father Dr. Tom Cage but also his fiance, Caitlin Masters and his 11-year-old daughter, Annie.
Forrest Knox was the number 2 man in the Louisiana State Police. He was a veteran of Korean war, a leader of the Double Eagle, a racial bigot and ruthless sociopath. He was joined in his hatred of African Americans by Frank Knox, the founder of the Double Eagles, Snake Knox, another charter member of that group, and Billy Knox, a semi-legitimate business man who ruled the drug distribution business in Louisiana as a sideline.
Caitlin Masters was the publisher of the Natchez Examiner and a Pulitzer winning reporter as well. She was on the track of finding the murderers who had killed and buried several young black men from the 1960’s onward, reportedly in The Bone Tree in the Lusahatcha Swamp.
Caitlin discovered that she was pregnant although her wedding was several weeks away. She informed Tom Cage, via text, but did not tell her fiancé, Penn Cage.
Forest Knox planned to kill Caitlin and Penn and to blame Snake Knox, his uncle, and Sonny Thornfield for the killing. In the plan, Forest would report Snake to the FBI and help them convict him of the crime. When the FBI corners Snake, Forest will go in to talk him out and in the process, he will kill Snake and Sonny.
Tom Cage, on the run from an APB for the murder of Violet Turner and later a Louisiana patrolman, finally made his way to his attorney’s house in the woods of Jefferson County, Mississippi. Tom and Walt Garrity had split up after they killed the patrolman in self-defense. Tom was exhausted as he pulled up to Avery’s mansion, and he needed rest, food, and some protection.
Penn and Sheriff Walker led a drug raid, arresting 27 dealers working for the Knox family. A bomb blast killed two of Walker’s deputies as they attempted to enter a warehouse, booby-trapped to protect the drugs inside.
Caitlin receives a posthumous letter from Henry Sexton. He tells her about Toby Rambin, a poacher who could take Caitlin to find the Bone Tree and the multiple bodies rotting there. Henry warned her not to go there alone. Henry told Caitlin that Frank Knox kept a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald, written in Russian, that predicted the JFK assassination.
Henry Sexton had passed the torch and the files from all his work to Caitlin. The story of a lifetime.
Caitlin contacts Toby Rambin and they agree on the money and time to get together to visit to the Bone Tree. Jordan Glass agrees to go with Caitlin and the next morning they head out to meet Toby. It’s an hour’s drive to the Lusahatcha Swamp. “What do you hope to find at the Bone Tree,” Jordan asked.
“Civil Rights murder victims and possible evidence about the JFK assassination. We may find proof that Frank Knox killed John Kennedy.”
Toby does not show up for his appointment with Caitlin but shortly after that, a young boy no older than 15 arrives. His name is Dontae Edwards. Shortly after that, Deputy Carl Sims, a 25-year-old black deputy sheriff arrived on the scene. Carl is Caitlin’s good friend and she is glad to see him.
Carl has access to a sheriff helicopter piloted by Danny McDavitt. They got close to the location of the Bone Tree according to the map that Dontae had given them but the helo could not get them close enough to jump into dry land surrounding the tree. They found a small boat piloted by Moses, another poacher in the area.
Moses takes the girls to the vicinity of the tree where they find a body in the water. Caitlin thought at first it was Dr. Cage but on closer inspection she realized it was someone else. Jordan had to catch a flight to Cuba on another assignment and they drove back to civilization where she met FBI agents and left for her flight.
Harold Wallis approached Caitlin in the truck-stop restaurant. He offered to take her to the Bone Tree which they find after a short trip in Wallis’s small boat. Caitlin goes inside the bone tree and finds tons of old bones. She calls Wallis for help but instead of helping, he shoots her in the chest with his .22 rifle, hired by Forrest Knox to fire the fatal bullet. He then takes off leaving Caitlin who is not dead but seriously wounded. As she lays there, she discovers a new body in the tree. It’s a man, not dead. Tom Cage in handcuffs and almost dead himself.
Dr. Cage is tied up, so he cannot operate even in the field which is what Caitlin needs to remove the bullet which Wallis had inflicted on her. Tom Cage coaches her to operate on herself using a Bix pen as the primary tool. Caitlin dies.
Penn goes to Forrest Knox’s compound to confront him about Caitlin and other issues. They fight, and Penn gets hold of a large spear on display at the Knox house. He kills Forrest with it. Captain Ozan who was there to protect Forrest steps up to arrest Penn but surprise Walt who has grabbed a sword smacks him with it and kills Ozan too. Garrity is injured by a pistol whip which Ozan had delivered before he was attacked with the sword.
Penn is arrested and put in jail. When Shad comes to gloat about his killing Forest, he tells Penn that he will be asking for the death penalty for his killing Forrest Knox.
Agent Kaiser arrives at the jail and tells Penn that Mackiever of the Louisiana State Police had decided that he will help Penn get released from jail and cleared of murder charges. MacKiever was grateful for the help that Tom Cage and Walt Garrity had given him in his battle to prevent Forest Knox from getting his job.
Mackiever made up a story that cleared Penn of all charges. Sheriff Byrd release Penn from jail with no future trials on the horizon. Dr. Cage remains in jail charged with the murder of Viola Turner.
Quentin Avery has agreed to act as Tom Cage’s attorney. Snake Knox remains as the leader of the Double Eagles and is determined to cause great stress for Penn and the FBI.
Rating
Four stars out of four. Entertaining, educational. Full of adventure and intrigue. Sometimes hard to believe as the conspiracy of JFK’s assassination is revealed. Excellent descriptions of the integration of America during the 1960’s and the racist bigotry of the Ku Klux Klan and National Supremacists. A must read.
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