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Greg Iles

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Greg Iles
Greg Iles in 2013
Greg Iles in 2013
BornMark Gregory Iles
(1960-04-08)April 8, 1960
Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
DiedAugust 15, 2025(2025-08-15) (aged 65)
Natchez, Mississippi, U.S.
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Mississippi
Period1993–2024
Spouse
  • Carrie McGee (divorced)
  • Caroline Hungerford
    ​
    (m. 2014)​
Children4

Mark Gregory Iles (April 8, 1960 – August 15, 2025) was an American novelist who lived in Mississippi. He published seventeen novels and one novella, spanning a variety of genres.

Early life

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Mark Gregory Iles was born on April 8, 1960, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, where his physician father ran the U.S. Embassy Medical Clinic.[1][2] He was raised in Natchez, Mississippi, the setting of many of his novels.[3] After attending Trinity Episcopal Day School, he graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983.[4]

Career

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Iles spent several years as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in the band Frankly Scarlet.[5] He quit the band after he was married and began working on his first novel, Spandau Phoenix, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess. Spandau Phoenix was published in 1992.[2]

In 2002, Iles wrote the screenplay 24 Hours from his novel of the same name. Rewritten by director Don Roos, it was renamed Trapped. Iles then rewrote the script during the shoot, at the request of the producers and actors.[6]

In 2011, Iles was seriously injured in a traffic accident on U.S. Route 61 near Natchez.[7] He sustained life-threatening injuries, including a ruptured aorta.[8] He was put into an induced coma for eight days, and lost his right leg below the knee. During his three-year recovery, he wrote three volumes of a trilogy set in Natchez, Mississippi, and featuring former prosecutor Penn Cage.[9][10]

Iles was a member of the literary musical group The Rock Bottom Remainders, which includes or has included authors Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, and James McBride.[11] In July 2013, he co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the group.[12] The ebook combines essays, fiction, musings, email exchanges and conversations, photographs, audio and video clips, and interactive quizzes to give readers a view into the private lives of the authors/musicians.

Personal life and death

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Iles was first married to Carrie McGee; the couple had two children before divorcing.[1] In 2014, he married Caroline Hungerford, with whom he also had two children.[1][4]

Iles was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, in 1996.[4] By the early 2020s, the cancer had progressed substantially, leaivng him requiring a wheelchair; he underwent a stem cell transplant before the publication of his final novel, Southern Man (2024).[4] He died from the disease at his Natchez home on August 15, 2025, at the age of 65.[1][13]

Works

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Fiction

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  • Spandau Phoenix (1993) ISBN 0-525-93604-1
  • Black Cross (1995) ISBN 0-525-93829-X
  • Mortal Fear (1997) ISBN 0-525-93792-7
  • The Quiet Game (1999) ISBN 0-525-93793-5
  • 24 Hours (2000) ISBN 0-399-14624-5
  • Dead Sleep (2001) ISBN 0-399-14735-7
  • Sleep No More (2002) ISBN 0-399-14881-7
  • The Footprints of God (2003) (also titled Dark Matter) ISBN 0-340-82274-0
  • Blood Memory (2005) ISBN 0-7432-3470-7
  • Turning Angel (2005) ISBN 0-7432-3471-5
  • True Evil (2006) ISBN 0-7432-9249-9
  • Third Degree (2007) ISBN 978-1-4165-2454-0
  • The Devil's Punchbowl (2009) ISBN 978-0-7432-9251-1
  • The Death Factory (2014) novella ISBN 978-0-0623-3669-9
  • Natchez Burning (2014) ISBN 978-0-0623-1108-5
  • The Bone Tree (2015) ISBN 978-0-0623-1112-2
  • Mississippi Blood (2017) ISBN 978-0-0623-1116-0
  • Cemetery Road (2019) ISBN 978-0-0628-2468-4
  • Southern Man (2024) ISBN 978-0-0628-2469-1

Nonfiction

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  • Hard Listening (2013), with Rock Bottom Remainders

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Sandomir, Richard (August 22, 2025). "Greg Iles, Novelist Who Wrote About Race in Mississippi, Dies at 65". The New York Times. Retrieved August 22, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Moran, Riley (April 30, 2025). "Greg Iles". Mississippi Encyclopedia. Mississippi Humanities Council. Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  3. ^ Sickler, Linda (February 12, 2015). "Author Greg Iles to discuss 'Natchez Burning' and other works at book festival". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d Bolden, Bonnie (August 15, 2025). "Greg Iles, NYT best-selling author from Mississippi, died. What we know about his life, death". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved August 16, 2025.
  5. ^ Daley, Kelli (August 2003). "Greg Iles Takes on God ... and If the Almighty Wasn't Enough to Worry about, Now He's Got to Watch out for Dave Barry, Too". Archived from the original on September 9, 2020.
  6. ^ "Interview with Greg Iles". The Strand Magazine. March 6, 2014. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  7. ^ "Author Greg Iles injured in traffic accident". The Washington Post/Associated Press. March 8, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  8. ^ Watkins, Billy (April 27, 2014). "Author Greg Iles rebounds from near-fatal wreck". The Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  9. ^ Sheehan, Bill (May 1, 2014). "With 'Natchez Burning,' Greg Iles is back better than ever". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  10. ^ Hyde, Paul (May 5, 2014). "Tragedy changed Greg Iles book 'Natchez Burning'". The Greenville News. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  11. ^ Burch, Cathalena E. (March 11, 2015). "Rock Bottom Remainders: Not the best band, but the most literary". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  12. ^ "Hard Listening".
  13. ^ Griffey, Jan (August 15, 2025). "Natchez's NYT Bestselling author Greg Iles has died". Natchez Democrat. Retrieved August 15, 2025.
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