Uncomfortably difficult at times, but unfailingly compelling!

Penn Cage is a writer and semi-retired attorney, recently widowed and seeing a younger woman in a difficult long distance relationship. He and his close friend, Andrew Elliot, a much loved internist, both living in the town of Natchez, Mississippi, serve on the board of a well-heeled private school of the sort that turns out accomplished students destined for the ivy league likes of Harvard and Yale. Kate Townsend, a tennis ace and beautiful young student at the school, scheduled to be the valedictorian for the graduating class that year is found murdered and raped. The entire town is in shock but Cage receives an overwhelming double dose when Elliot reveals that he had fallen in love with Kate, was sleeping with her and had even gone so far as to make a down payment on a house in Massachusetts where they would live after his divorce from his drug-addicted wife. Shad Johnson, the black district attorney for Natchez with political aspirations to the position of mayor and perhaps beyond, positively salivates at the juicy political prospect of sending a white man to death row in Mississippi for the statutory rape and capital murder of a girl who had yet to reach the age of majority.

"Turning Angel" is undoubtedly a first rate thriller but it is also a compelling intellectual leap from the typically action based brain candy effort which relies on pure thrills and chills for its effectiveness. In every direction a reader turns, Iles lays bare uncomfortable and difficult issues related to loss of innocence and the perceptions that people have of themselves and one another.

Is it acceptable (or even possible) for a forty year old man to have a valid, meaningful sexual relationship with a 17 year old girl? This line is blurred and the question made much more difficult to answer honestly when Iles makes it clear that Cage, who was openly critical of Elliot's relationship with Townsend begins to develop feelings for his babysitter, Mia Burke, who, unlike Townsend, is above the age of majority - but barely!

A candid presentation of teenage raves, drug experimentation and sexual habits will have many reading parents questioning whether they have the slightest clue about what goes on in the minds of their near adult children. Iles' ability to present dialogue is superb. The conversations that Cage has with Mia Burke are really quite extraordinary and positively gripping! Not only do they build a colourful sketch of a well grounded young lady intelligent and mature beyond her years but they also reveal her as a teenager with a complete helping of the typical angst and fears associated with her entry into a confusing adult world.

One of the more interesting can of worms that Iles unflinchingly pried open was the myriad perceptions of a southern black mayoral candidate's political motives by a potential black constituency - a frank eye opener for me, I must say!

You're likely to find yourself well outside of your mental comfort zone when you read "Turning Angel" but you will also feel challenged and, as you should with any well crafted thriller, enthralled and wishing you had more time to devote to its reading.

Paul Weiss