All partnerships fail in the end,
just like marriages. The only
life after death any human being
will ever know is staying in a
marriage or a partnership after
it’s over. And that’s not life —
it’s living death.
— Greg Iles, True Evil
This aphorism by author Greg Iles sets the tone for “True Evil” (2006, 614 pages in paperback format), a stand-alone Southern Gothic novel that grabs you in Chapter One and doesn’t let go until the last page. If you think that it’s impossible to sustain tension for more than 600 pages, then you haven’t read any of Mr. Iles’s other mystery-thrillers. In this case, we experience the depths of human depravity; the bad guys act with such a lack of humanity that book is almost akin to a horror novel. But Iles is better than that. Some of his novels are dark — occasionally very dark — mystery-thrillers.
Iles’ protagonist in this novel is Alexandra (Alex) Morse, an FBI special agent whose specialty as a negotiator was legend. As she sits by her dying sister’s bed in the hospital, Grace whispers that her husband Bill has murdered her. With her dying breath, Grace pleads, “You have to save Jamie.” Jamie is her son, and he’s been adopted by Bill. In some way, Bill is involved in a sinister plot that involves a divorce attorney Andrew Rush.
Then, Iles introduces Dr. Chris Shepard, a successful local physician, happily married, and on his way to a perfect life. That is until he encounters Alex who drops a bombshell on him. She believes that his wife Thora is trying to kill him. And there is a second physician, Dr. Eldon Tarver, a brilliant researcher and scientist who is making break-through discoveries on the way that viruses can introduce cancer into people. Tarver is working with Rush to give dissatisfied wealthy people an alternative to divorce and having to divided their estate with the divorced spouse.
Alex explains her theory to Chris. She believes that someone has found a way to introduce various forms of cancer — especially the one that causes cancer of the blood — into human beings. When the people eventually die, an autopsy will reveal only “natural” causes. Rush’s clients need only to wait the 18 months or so for their spouses to suffer a horrible death before they can enrich themselves and, or course, attorney Rush and his partner, Dr. Tarver.
It may seem that I’ve revealed too much, but I assure you that none (well, hardly any) of what I’ve written would be considered a “spoiler.” There is so much more to the tale that Mr. Iles tells, yet the plot is largely devoid of “twists.” Perhaps Iles thought that the villains, themselves, were so twisted that any more would simply be too much.
In my mind, this book ranks way up there in the very thin atmosphere with Thomas Harris’ “The Silence of the Lambs” or “Red Dragon.” It stretches our understanding of human depravity.
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Jim Glynn may be contacted at j_glynn@att.net.