Third Degree: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Greg Iles (Author)
Key Phrases: clone phone, command trailer, directional mikes, Sheriff Ellis, Ray Breen, Warren Shields (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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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Review
"A keep-you-engaged-to-the-very-last-page thriller is born."-- USA Today --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 385 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743292502
• ISBN-13: 978-0743292504
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,043 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, fast paced thriller spanning one day, has flaws, but good overall, November 28, 2007

By	Bill Garrison (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Greg Iles latest novel, THIRD DEGREE, is a harrowing thriller that takes place over the course of an afternoon. Lauren Shields teaches a developmentally disabled class at the elementary school. Her husband Warren is a doctor. One morning she wakes up and finds Warren frantically searching the house for something. In fact, he's been searching all night. He says it has something to do with an IRS audit of his business. Lauren has problems of her own. She's pregnant, and the baby probably isn't Warren's. For the past several months, She's been having an affair with Danny McDavvitt, a war hero and a kind man who has marriage problems of his own. Danny wants to leave his wife for Lauren, but can't for fear that his wife will get custody of his autistic son. Warren's office is also under investigation for Medicare fraud, and Warren's partner, Kyle Auster is devious and amoral.

You throw the above beginnings of a plot into a a 12 hour period, and you get this novel. I glanced at a few reviews, and many negative reviewers seemed to dislike the story as not a traditional Iles novel. Iles is a great novelist and one of the few out there that constantly change genres. He started out with World War II novels, then moved onto standard thrillers. He wasn't afraid to try new things, like Footprints of God (a sci-fi look at the nature of religion) or Dead Sleep (a novel all Steven King fans would love). Iles has tried this before. His 24 Hours spanned a day. He's trying it again in this character driven thriller. If the entire novel is compressed into a day, then what keeps the pages turning? Iles introduces a desperate man in Warren and a confused wife in Lauren, thows in a couple of kids and then keeps adding characters who have parts to play in the drama. We miss out on character development, although Iles does add just enough backstory to let us know what is going on.

I liked this book because I like Iles, and I trust that he knows what he is doing even as he tries to tell a different type of story. The book has some weaknesses as well. Telling a story over a 12 hour period means you lose a lot of characterization. The decision to cheat on your spouse and potentially destroy a marriage is not one entered into lightly, yet the relationship between Lauren and Warren gets neglected in the format of the novel. Why did she cheat? Why did she feel the need to cheat. What did she ever see in Warren in the first place.

Don't worry, by the end of the novel, Iles has resolved most plot threads and even offered and explanation for Warren's sudden erratic behavior. He also tries to explore some themes such as marriage, family and forgiveness, but never really offers any answers. By reading the reviews, it is obvious some fans were disappointed in Iles' latest effort. Not me. I found it quick and easy to read, and highly suspensful. The only negative is that there weren't really any sympathetic characters to root for. They weren't all truly evil, but when your heroine is an adulterer who refuses to tell her husband who she is sleeping with, there isn't much room for sympathy. Overall, I recommend to all Iles and thriller fans. Just know you are getting something different, and be thankful that Iles is one of the best authors around and very capable of pulling it off.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Star 'Box-of Chocolate' , November 11, 2007

By	N. Bilmes "bookaholic" (Vernon, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This effort by Iles is one-part Lifetime Movie of the Week, and one-part Robert Crais-like thrill ride. The Lifetime sections can be long and overwrought, but the thriller sections are taut with anxiety. The problem is that there are too many parts reminiscent of Lifetime movies, compared to the parts that we thriller fans are looking for.

Iles is a skilled writer, but because he doesn't stick to a tried-and-true formula, he's a box-of-chocolates kind of author; we never know quite what we're going to get until we've bitten into the offering.

If you skim wisely, you'll be holding a page-turner. If you read every word, you might doze off.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Day! What a Read!, January 6, 2008

By	John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I bought this book the old fashioned way...at a bookstore...so I was unaware of the variety of reviews it has engendered here on Amazon until I finished it. Quite frankly, I fail to understand what all the fuss is about with those who didn't like the book. It is a flat out page turning read.

A number of people have more than adequately gone over the plot and telling to much would spoil it for others. All I will say that the one day that is packaged between the covers of this book is really something and if you pass it by it will be your loss.

Mr. Iles continues at the top of his profession, in my judgement.