Third Degree: A Novel

“One of our most original and entertaining thriller writers” (The Denver Post), Greg Iles holds readers hostage in this electrifying bestseller of Southern small-town suspense.

In the span of twenty-four hours, everything Laurel Shields believes about her life and her marriage to a prominent doctor will be shattered—if she survives a terrifying ordeal. The day begins with the jarring discovery that, soon after ending an affair, Laurel is pregnant. But when she returns home to find her husband ashen, unkempt, and on the brink of violence, a nightmare quickly unfolds. In the heart of an idyllic Mississippi town, behind the walls of her perfect house, Laurel is locked in a volatile standoff with a husband she barely recognizes. Confronted by evidence of her betrayal, she must tread a deadly path between truth and deception while a ring of armed police prepares a dangerous rescue. But Laurel’s only hope lies with her former lover, a man whom fate has granted the power to save both Laurel and her children—if she can protect his identity long enough. . . .

While not as twisty as True Evil (2006), bestseller Iles's new thriller injects both depth and novelty into a genre convention—the jealous husband who's tipped off to his wife's infidelity. When Laurel Shields, a 35-year-old mother of two, discovers she's pregnant, she can't be sure her physician husband, Warren, is the father. Meanwhile, Warren is in trouble with the IRS. Laurel believes his obsessive search for a document in their Athens Point, Miss., home is related to a federal Medicaid fraud investigation focusing on his medical partner, Kyle Auster. As the Feds prepare to swoop down on Warren and Kyle's office to collect the evidence of false billings and bribes to patients without any actual illnesses, Warren takes Laurel and their two children hostage. Iles squeezes every drop of suspense out of the prolonged standoff between the doctor and the police. While the ending may be a little too pat to be plausible, Iles avoids turning Warren into a clichéd bad guy by making his descent into madness understandable. (Nov.)
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"A keep-you-engaged-to-the-very-last-page thriller is born." -- USA Today