Book Talk: Greg Iles, ‘Dead Sleep’

Greg Iles died a couple of months ago at the age of 65. He was born in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, West Germany, but lived his life in Natchez, Mississippi. He was one of the great American novelists to have obtained his college education at Ole Miss. And like many other best-selling authors (some in the Southern Tradition, some not) like humorist Dave Barry, Stephen King, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow, Roy Blunt, and Matt Groening, he was a member of the musical group The Rock Bottom Remainders.

In Dead Sleep (2001, 352 pages in hardback format), Iles introduces us to Jordan Glass, a photojournalist whose work is widely known and honored with many awards. Jordan’s sister disappeared a year earlier in New Orleans and is presumed to be dead. Jordan’s taking time off from her job, working on her recovery from the loss. While vacationing in Hong Kong, she tours an exhibition of female nudes at the Museum of Chinese Art. 

The paintings are extremely controversial, not because the models are undraped, but because it appears that the women may be dead. As Jordan approaches one of the paintings, the people in Jordan’s tour group all stare at her because she is the mirror image of one of the women in the painting. Of course, the paintings are not signed, nor is the name of the artist known. But Jordan does know the name of the model: it’s Jane, her dead sister, her identical twin.