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TRUE EVIL is the title of Greg Isles's latest thriller. Most of the action takes place in Jackson and Natchez, Mississippi. Isles draws in readers with his seductive style as he presents the mythology of the south and captures the ambience, atmosphere, lifestyles, geography and heat reflected in the muddy waters of the Mississippi delta.
First we meet Alexandra (Alex) Morse, a former hostage negotiator for the FBI who is making an emergency trip to Jackson because her older sister Grace has collapsed suddenly and is in the hospital. This has been one tough year for Alex and her family: her father passed away after being shot in a robbery, two months later her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and then Alex herself was involved in an accident that left her disfigured and led to the death of a fellow agent (her lover).
Encased in a glass room in a part of the hospital marked NEUROLOGY ICU, Grace has suffered a stroke. As her life slowly slips away, Grace uses every ounce of strength to say that Alex has to save Jamie (Alex's nephew) from his father; Grace wants Alex to be made aware of her husband's dark side. Alex is dumbfounded. Is Grace delirious? Is her brain so damaged that she doesn't know what she's saying? All of this is a shock, and Alex is trying to process this information when Grace says, "Eeth a monther!" [He's a monster!] She continues to describe the man that Bill Fennell really is. And when he enters the room, it is obvious that Grace is terrified. All of a sudden, she grabs a hold of Alex's blouse and utters, "Ed kiwd me!" [He killed me!] She dies a few minutes later.
Alex is devastated and confused --- her brother-in-law killed her sister? Could this be true? How does she take this in as she stands next to her dead sibling? Whatever Grace meant, Alex grabs her nephew and walks out of the hospital leaving behind a chunk of her heart. Even a demoted but very savvy FBI agent is sometimes caught up in the chaos of life's unexpected incidents of loss and pain, grief and fear.
Alex is a good investigator who works night and day to find answers to the unfolding catastrophe in her personal world. But when she uncovers a strange conspiracy linked to a shady lawyer and a mysterious doctor, she realizes that a number of "healthy spouses" have died under perplexing circumstances. If she's right, then these two have devised a way to help the ultra-rich who are seeking a divorce or custody of their children keep their millions without the headache of alimony or child support.
Alex uses her resources at the FBI to investigate her brother-in-law and learns not only his dirty secrets but also his link to these villains. As she expands her inquiries, she is able to explore the attorney's finances and business holdings, some of which are clearly bogus. As she probes a little more into the paper trail, she further convinces herself that he is a procurer of "customers" for a murderer (the fourth player in this complex and highly suspenseful novel, Dr. Eldon Tarver), a mysterious man of great repute who truly is both brilliant and insane. His experiments are right out of a Dr. Mengele handbook. And the way he uses his genius is mind blowing.
At this point Alex tracks down Dr. Chris Shepard, whose wife visited the divorce lawyer very recently. Alex thus concludes that the good doctor will be the next victim. When she approaches him with the facts she has gathered, he doesn't believe her. "Calm down, Dr. Shepard. You may not believe it at this moment, but I am here to help you. Your life may be in danger...and you may be the only person in a position to stop whomever is behind these murders."
Dr. Shepard is willing to play along to prove her wrong. And thus, he and Alex form an uneasy alliance wherein the doctor tries to shoot down Alex's theory at every opportunity. "...I still say your theory doesn't add up...the time factor...if I want to kill someone, it's because I really hate them, or...I stand to lose millions...I want immediate action...I'm not going to wait months or years for her/him to croak." Alex agrees. But she points out, "Imagine how someone that desperate might react to a slick lawyer offering him a risk-free road out of his problems. A perfect murder is worth waiting for." And, when the funeral is over, you look like a martyr who has cared for your dying spouse for a long time.
TRUE EVIL is a fascinating novel. Greg Iles takes his time letting the various plot lines neatly coalesce and offers a coherent conclusion. The characters are perfectly cast in their roles, and readers get to hate the bad guys and cheer for the good ones. The medicine and science at the heart of the book are chillingly real. Readers need to think about this and whether or not our society is ready for the true evil that is out there in the world.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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