Southern Man: Penn Cage #7    by Greg Iles Order:  USA  Can William Morrow, 2024 (2024) Hardcover, e-Book      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Greg Iles' Southern Man is the seventh in his political thriller series starring former prosecutor Penn Cage, that began with Natchez Burning. This episode opens fifteen years later, when Penn has lost most of his loved ones. I missed much of the back story and lost some of the nuances here, but it was still a fine read. As the novel opens, Penn and his daughter Annie (now a passionate civil rights lawyer) are spending most of their time with Penn's dying mother Peggy. She has been researching family history but has not yet shared what she's learned with her son. Penn also struggles with the knowledge of an inherited disease (myeloma) that is worsening, but that he has kept secret. Their deathbed watch is interrupted by the Mission Hill massacre, when local deputies open fire on an open air concert. Annie is severely wounded, and rapper Kendrick Washington becomes a national hero by risking his life to end the shooting. In a separate but interweaving plot strand, readers meet one armed Special Forces war hero Robert E. Lee (Bobby) White, who's making his own path as a third-party candidate in the 2024 Presidential election. He's funded by billionaire Charles Dufort. Lee is gay but keeps that secret. How does he plan to win? 'White panic' is the key he plans to turn. Unfortunately, Kendrick stole his thunder, but subsequent Bastard Sons of the Confederacy burnings of antebellum plantation mansions give him fuel. Though Bobby is likeable, his belief that the end justifies the means leads to unconscionable actions. As usual, Iles gives fans an extraordinary read with many intriguing subplots, but I also appreciated his own musings. He tells us he watched the 2016 election, in disbelief as 'businessmen voted for a repeat bankrupt, laborers for a boss infamous for stiffing his workers, evangelicals for a serial adulterer, women for an admitted sexual assaulter, patriots for a draft dodger'. Their chosen one opened a Pandora's box of 'race hatred and rage and cruelty and bloodlust and infinite greed', aiming it at the Other. Iles calls today's Republican Party 'a cult that denies reality.' The story ends, after another mass shooting and with the country close to a second Civil War, in an explosive confrontation, where Penn sees little hope of saving his loved ones. While waiting for the end, he shares what he finally learned from his mother of family history. Whatever you read this year, don't miss Southern Man! Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews