Greg Iles

A tale spanning a traumatic single day follows Liz Pike, who awakens in her small-town home to discover her husband frantically preparing for what he claims is an IRS audit. She soon realizes, however, that he has discovered the truth about her affair wit

A Novel

Third Degree

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** spoiler alert **
           This began as an interesting book and stayed interesting up until the end.

Laurel, special-ed teacher and wife of a doctor, lives in wealth and luxury with her husband and two kids. However, the book opens with the fact that Laurel has been having an affair and is pregnant. She does not know if the father is Danny, her paramore, or Warren, her husband. Odds are on Danny. Unfortunately, her affair has ended since Danny can't divorce his wife without losing custody of his kids, including his autistic son.

Laurel leaves school with a migraine and returns home to find Warren still at home which is very unusual. The heart of the novel's action begins there as Warren produces a gun and holds Laurel hostage. He found a love letter signed "Me" from Danny and will not release Laurel until she admits her adultery and tells him who the other man is.

The action picks up again when Laurel's children come home from elementary school. And here's where my problems with the story begin. Laurel had access to a cell phone - she called it her clone phone and it was the phone she used exclusively to communicate with Danny. Most mothers would have done anything in their power to make sure that their children did not become hostages for their gun-wielding and crazed, irrational and delusional father. Using the cell phone may have meant exposing her affair but that would have been a small price to pay for the safety of her kids. She also does not use the cell to call 911 or any other form of help since she doesn't trust the local cops to handle a hostage situation. At this point, Warren has shot at her and assaulted her. Anyone else would have called 911.

Warren's partner Kyle from his medical practice then shows up and Warren is convinced that this is his wife's lover. In fact, Kyle has been involved in medical billing fraud and is being investigated. He came to Warren's house to retrieve some incriminating evidence he had planted there. Warren refuses to release him from the house until his password-cracking program is done and he can access Laurel's email account to see who her lover is. If Kyle is not the other man, then Warren will release him. Kyle, however, needs to leave since the investigators are on their way to close the medical office and arrest him. So, Kyle begins to leave and when challenged by Warren, he produces a gun. At this point, Laurel should see this as a blessing since Warren has terrorized their kids, shot at her, and implied he would kill her in front of them as soon as he found out who she was sleeping with. Beth is also afraid that Warren will kill all of them. But instead of allowing Kyle to shoot her deranged husband, she shouts out a warning to Warren...WHAT??? Warren then shoots and kills Kyle.

At some point after this, their son Grant escapes from the house and flees to the neighbors who then call the police and a hostage standoff begins. The Medicare investigator also shows up and attempts to take over the scene since there are federal charges against Warren and Kyle. He threatens to call in the FBI or SWAT. Despite the bungling ineptitude and lack of experience in handling this type of sitation, the feds are never called in.

Grant, safe at the neighbors, then decides to break back into the house to help his mom and sister. He does this right at the moment that the sharpshooter is set to take Warren out so thae shot is called off. Instead of helping his mom, Grant does a 180 and becomes his father's assistant. When one of the police crew goes rogue and breaks into the house to take Warren out, Warren kills him too which prompts a hug and celebration from Grant.. "You got him Dad!!". WHAT again??? This kid was terrorized and now is high-fiving his dad after his dad killed a cop?

The cops at some point find out that Warren has incureable brain cancer, which no one but him and his doctor know about. Laurel finds out and feels pity and remorse at cheating on him but still she does nothing to help herself out of the situation. She is trapped with a lunatic who may be physically incapable of rational thought due to the disease. He has killed 2 people, and threatened to kill her and her 2 kids are in the house. Most people would do anything, including supporting the execution of Warren, to get out of a situation like this but not Laurel. Her actions just didn't make sense to me.

And the ending....aw geez.

Warren finds out that Laurel is pregnant, she is having an affair with Danny (a man he knows well), and the odds of the baby being Warren's are almost nil. After the cops assault the house with explosives, Warren escapes and forces Danny to take him away in the helicopter. Grant tags along and amazingly, Warren lets him in the copter and instructs Danny to fly him 30 min away and drop Grant off at Laurel's mother's house. (Now, the grandmother happens to be standing out in her driveway when the helicopter lands in the street in front of her house and lets Grant out).

Warren is still holding a gun on Danny as they fly along the Mississippi. At some point, Warren asks Danny if he will look after Laurel and the kids when Warren is gone. Warren then throws himself out of the helicopter, plunging to his death. Danny then decides that having a dad who killed himself is too much of a stigma for the kids and purposefully crash-lands his helicopter, almost killing himself in the process. This way, the fact that their dad was a lunatic who killed 2 people and threatened to kill his family will all be made OK since he died in a crash and not by suicide.

The plot was fast-paced and the characters were well-developed but their actions did not ring true in many cases.

Third Degree A Novel

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