The Bone Tree

Southern prosecutor Penn Cage is caught in the darkest maelstrom of his life. The heartbreaking but seemingly straightforward death of his father's African-American nurse, Viola Turner, has fractured Penn's family and turned Dr. Tom Cage into a fugitive from justice. And in the search for his father and his reasons for running, Penn has unwittingly started a war with a violent offshoot of the KKK, the Double Eagles, whose members seem to know much more about Tom's past than Penn or his mother ever did.

Desperately following his father's trail, Penn finds himself in a maze of mirrors, beset on all sides by a family of criminals and corrupt police whose power reaches into the highest levels of state government. To even the odds, Penn must rely on allies whose objectives are very different from his own. FBI special agent John Kaiser sees Tom Cage as the key to closing not only countless civil rights murders, but also the ultimate cold case: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Penn's fiancée, journalist Caitlin Masters, is chasing the biggest story of her career and believes Tom can lead her to evidence of America's most secret, shameful history. In the end, all roads will lead to the mysterious Bone Tree, a legendary killing site that may conceal far more than the remains of the forgotten.

Penn now knows that the death of Viola Turner is a door to the darkest chapters of America's past. In the civil rights battleground that was 1960s Mississippi and Louisiana, powerful men had audacious, sweeping agendas, and their violent race murders concealed a conspiracy that ran wide and deep, involving the New Orleans Mafia, a Double Eagle hit squad, and a world- altering murder in Dealey Plaza in 1963. And if the FBI can be believed, somehow Dr. Tom Cage stands at the center of it all.

This second book picks up right where Natchez Burning left off.  Penn and Caitlin have survived a horrific attack and realize they have just scratched the surface of the truth. Penn is desperate to find his father and make a deal with the powerful men that are always a step ahead. There is so much corruption that it is hard to know who to trust. He is convinced that if he can make a deal with his father's former contemporaries his family will be safe. Caitlin is determined to uncover the rest of the story that another reporter began and lost his life over. The story takes twists and turns that kept me guessing and glued to the pages. I highly recommend both books, and to enjoy The Bone Tree it is best to read Natchez Burning first.  The books are tomes and well worth the time investment.  Can't wait for the third book.

My thoughts on the first book Natchez Burning.

Natchez Burning made the list for my favorites of 2014 and The Bone Tree definitely will have a place on the list for 2015.