Penn cage is caught in the darkest maelstrom of his life the death of his fathers african american nurse has fractured his family and turned dr tom cage into a fugitive penn has inadvertently started a war with an offshoot of the kkk and penns fiancee journalist caitlin masters is chasing the biggest story of her career. Southern storyteller greg iles continues the powerful and compelling saga of penn cage delivering the bone tree a hard boiled explosive multi layered follow up after sensational natchez burning which landed on my top 30 books of 2014 again greg does not disappoint his fans with this complex and emotional conspiracy of greed power politics civil rights and racial injustice spanning across history and generations. Greg iless the bone tree presents the ongoing stories of penn cage and others as they pursue cop killing fugitives uproot police corruption work to redress the failures of racist policing in the past and uncover the in milieu truth behind the a. The bone tree is number two in a trilogy involving penn cage the lawyer now mayor of natchez although i believe you would get more out of this second book by reading natchez burning first i also think the bone tree could stand alone this second novel begins exactly to the day or minute after book one ends