Movies from Greg Iles

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.
Greg Iles
Writer
The Russell Crowe film "Master and Commander" was made from a couple of them. There are twenty in total, and one not quite completed. All short but powerful, and psychologically incisive. Enjoy!
Movies from Greg Iles

Michael Clayton

A law firm brings in its 'fixer' to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit.
Greg Iles
Writer
One of the best film lines ever: Clooney: "I'm not the enemy." Wilkinson: "Then who are you?"
Movies from Greg Iles

The Right Stuff

A chronicle of the original Mercury astronauts in the formation of America's space program: Alan Shepherd, the first American in space; Gus Grissom, the benighted astronaut for whom nothing works out as planned; John Glenn, the straight-arrow 'boy scout' of the bunch who was the first American to orbit the earth; and the remaining pilots: Deke Slayton, Scott Carpenter and Wally Schirra.
Greg Iles
Writer
Philip Kaufman and cast made a great film in 1983. Plenty of untold story for a series, though.
Movies from Greg Iles

Stand by Me

Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern are four friends who decide to hike to find the corpse of Ray Brower, a local teenager, who was hit by a train while plucking blueberries in the wild.
Greg Iles
Writer
Totally with you on The Dead Zone. The best film too. Except, except... Stand By Me and Shawshank.
Movies from Greg Iles

The Dead Zone

Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.
Greg Iles
Writer
Totally with you on The Dead Zone. The best film too.
Movies from Greg Iles

Gorky Park

Police Inspector Renko tries to solve the case of three bodies found in Moscow's Gorky Park but finds his attempts to solve the crime impeded by his superiors. Working on his own, Renko seeks out more information and stumbles across a conspiracy involving the highest levels of the government.
Greg Iles
Writer
Joanna Pacula's debut in 1983's Gorky Park, from Martin Cruz Smith's unique and wonderful novel--as luminous as Julie Christie in Zhivago. Pacula was nominated for a Golden globe.
Movies from Greg Iles

The Shawshank Redemption

Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
Greg Iles
Writer
Third, as Mississippian Morgan Freeman said in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,“Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’.”
Movies from Greg Iles

Three Days of the Condor

A bookish CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.
Greg Iles
Writer
Von Sydow gave that movie a lot of the gravitas you felt thru his cold yet human portrayal of the professional assassin. World-weariness times fifty.
Movies from Greg Iles

The Ghost Writer

A writer stumbles upon a long-hidden secret when he agrees to help former British Prime Minister Adam Lang complete his memoirs on a remote island after the politician's assistant drowns in a mysterious accident.
Greg Iles
Writer
I believe a lot of the window shots were dropped in afterward in this film—especially in the private home where MacGregor’s character works on the manuscript. Almost every window shot is a distraction from the main scene due to perfect focus.
Movies from Greg Iles

2001: A Space Odyssey

Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
Greg Iles
Writer
What is your favorite film? 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Books from Greg Iles

Rising Tide

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Lillian Smith Award.An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of almost one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of African Americans north, and transformed American society and politics forever. The flood brought with it a human storm: white and black collided, honor and money collided, regional and national powers collided. New Orleans’s elite used their power to divert the flood to those without political connections, power, or wealth, while causing Black sharecroppers to abandon their land to flee up north. The states were unprepared for this disaster and failed to support the Black community. The racial divides only widened when a white officer killed a Black man for refusing to return to work on levee repairs after a sleepless night of work. In the powerful prose of Rising Tide, John M. Barry removes any remaining veil that there had been equality in the South. This flood not only left millions of people ruined, but further emphasized the racial inequality that have continued even to this day.
Greg Iles
Writer
John Barry, author of the great “Rising Tide,” has written an important piece on how the 1918 pandemic ended—slowly and lethally, due to precaution fatigue.
Books from Greg Iles

The Honourable Schoolboy

In the second part of John le Carré's Karla Trilogy, the battle of wits between spymaster George Smiley and his Russian adversary takes on an even more dangerous dimension.George Smiley, now acting head of the Circus, must rebuild its shattered reputation after one of the biggest betrayals in its history. Using the talents of journalist and occasional spy Jerry Westerby, Smiley launches a risky operation uncovering a Russian money-laundering scheme in the Far East. His aim: revenge on Karla, head of Moscow Centre and the architect of all his troubles. 'Energy, compassion, rich and overwhelming sweep of character and action' The Times'A remarkable sequel ... the achievement is in the characters, major and minor ... all burned on the brain of the reader' The New York TimesTHE SIXTH GEORGE SMILEY NOVEL
Greg Iles
Writer
My personal favorite, reread many times. What a master. RIP David Cornwell/John LeCarre.
Books from Greg Iles

Master and Commander (Vol. Book 1) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)

The classic first novel of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered “the best historical novels ever written” (Richard Snow, New York Times). Ardent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his first appointment as commander: the fourteen-gun ship HMS Sophie. Meanwhile—after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel—Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an unlikely rapport. On a whim, Aubrey invites Maturin to join his crew as the Sophie’s surgeon. And so begins the legendary friendship that anchors this beloved saga set against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Through every ensuing adventure on which Aubrey and Maturin embark, from the witty parley of their lovers and enemies to the roar of broadsides as great ships close in battle around them, O’Brian “provides endlessly varying shocks and surprises—comic, grim, farcical and tragic.… [A] whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit” (A. S. Byatt).
Greg Iles
Writer
The maritime novels of Patrick O'Brian. As good as anything ever written.
Books from Greg Iles

Mystery

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story comes “a dark, labyrinthian tale of murder and family relationships” (Chicago Sun-Times), starring an unlikely duo who must confront demons from the past and dark secrets that still haunt the present. Tom Pasmore, ten years old, survives a near fatal accident. During his long recovery, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder and finds he has clues to solving it that he shouldn’t. Lamont von Heilitz has spent his life solving mysteries, until he wanted to know nothing more of the terror of life and the horror of death. When a new murder disrupts their world of wealth, power, and pleasure, the two must form an unlikely partnership to find the killer.
Greg Iles
Writer
You probably know Peter Straub from his collaboration with Steve, or from his "Ghost Story," but he wrote many excellent books--some of the best I've ever read. Try Koko, The Throat, Mystery etc. You won't regret it.
Books from Greg Iles

The Throat

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story brings the chilling Blue Rose Trilogy to an astonishing close—secrets unearthed, demons revisited, and mysteries solved. • “A masterpiece…. The most intelligent novel of suspense to come along in years.” —The Washington Post Book WorldTim Underhill, now an acclaimed novelist, travels back to his hometown of Millhaven, Illinois after he gets a call from John Ransom, an old army buddy. Ransom believes there’s a copycat killer on the loose, mimicking the Blue Rose murders from decades earlier—he thinks his wife could be a potential victim. Underhill seeks out his old friend Tom Pasmore, an aging hermit who has attained minor celebrity as an expert sleuth, to help him investigate. They quickly discover that Millhaven is a town plagued by horrifying secrets and there is a twisted killer on the loose who is far more dangerous than they ever imagined. Expertly tying together the events of Koko and Mystery, The Throat proves Peter Straub to be the master of the suspense novel.
Greg Iles
Writer
You probably know Peter Straub from his collaboration with Steve, or from his "Ghost Story," but he wrote many excellent books--some of the best I've ever read. Try Koko, The Throat, Mystery etc. You won't regret it.
Books from Greg Iles

Koko

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story comes “an inspired thriller” (The Washington Post) about four Vietnam vets linked by a shattering secret and their global hunt to track down a brutal killer. Koko. Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They were Vietnam vets—a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a devastating secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take them from Washington, D.C., to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York, searching for someone from the past who has risen from the darkness to kill and kill and kill.
Greg Iles
Writer
You probably know Peter Straub from his collaboration with Steve, or from his "Ghost Story," but he wrote many excellent books--some of the best I've ever read. Try Koko.
Books from Greg Iles

Klan of Devils

In the summer of 1965, several Ku Klux Klan members riding in a pickup truck shot two Black deputies on patrol in Washington Parish, Louisiana. Deputy Oneal Moore, the driver of the patrol car and father of four daughters, died instantly. His partner, Creed Rogers, survived and radioed in a description of the vehicle. Less than an hour later, police in Mississippi spotted the truck and arrested its driver, a decorated World War II veteran named Ernest Ray McElveen. They returned McElveen to Washington Parish, where he spent eleven days in jail before authorities released him. Afterward, the FBI sent its top inspector to Bogalusa, Louisiana, to participate in the murder inquiry—the only civil rights–era FBI investigation into the killing of a Black law enforcement officer by the KKK. Despite that assistance, lack of evidence and witnesses unwilling to come forward forced Louisiana prosecutors eventually to drop all charges against McElveen. The FBI continued its investigation but could not gather enough evidence to file charges, leaving the murder of Oneal Moore unsolved. Klan of Devils: The Murder of a Black Louisiana Deputy Sheriff is Stanley Nelson’s investigation of this case, which the FBI probed from 1965 to 2016. Nelson describes the Klan’s growth, and the emergence of Black activism in Bogalusa and Washington Parish, against the backdrop of political and social change in the 1950s and early 1960s. With the assistance of two retired FBI agents who worked the case, Nelson also explores the lives of the primary suspects, all of whom are now dead, and points to the Klansmen most likely responsible for the senseless and horrific attack.
Greg Iles
Writer
My good friend, reporter Stanley Nelson, who helped inspire the Natchez Burning trilogy, has a new book out TODAY from LSU Press. Cold KKK Case from 1965 that the Bureau worked 51 years and Stanley worked longer.
Books from Greg Iles

The Killer Angels

It is the third summer of the war, June 1863, and Robert Lee's Confederate Army slips across the Potomac to draw out the Union Army. Lee's army is 70,000 strong and has won nearly every battle it has fought. The Union Army is 80,000 strong and accustomed to defeat and retreat. Thus begins the Battle of Gettysburg, the four most bloody and courageous days of America's history. Two armies fight for two goals - one for freedom, the other for a way of life. This is a classic, Pulitzer Prize-Winning, historical novel set during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Greg Iles
Writer
My dad always tried to get me to read Michael Shaara’s “The Killer Angels.” I never did while he was alive, but yesterday that changed. It stunned me. A phenomenal piece of psychological writing. Can’t recommend highly enough. I so wish I’d shared it with Dad. He knew good work.
Books recommended by Greg Iles
19 books

Greg Iles Book List - 19 Favorite Reads

Greg Iles shared his favorites from his personal library. This list includes books that he loves, that inspired and influenced him to write. Enjoy his favorite picks!
Greg Iles
Writer
Greg Iles shared his favorites from his personal library. This list includes books that he loves, that inspired and influenced him to write. Enjoy his favorite picks!
TV Shows from Greg Iles

The Last Kingdom

A show of heroic deeds and epic battles with a thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity. Combining real historical figures and events with fictional characters, it is the story of how a people combined their strength under one of the most iconic kings of history in order to reclaim their land for themselves and build a place they call home.
Greg Iles
Writer
Few series hold true for 5 seasons. @TheLastKingdom did—in triumph! “Vikings,” sadly, lost its way. But inspired adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s books & wonderful actors led by Alexander Dreymon & David Dawson lift TLK to the top rank. Can’t recommend this show highly enough!
TV Shows from Greg Iles

The Right Stuff

At the height of the Cold War, newly formed NASA selects seven of the military’s best test pilots to become astronauts. Competing to be the first in space, these men achieve the extraordinary, inspiring the world to turn towards a new horizon of ambition and hope.
Greg Iles
Writer
Had high hopes for The Right Stuff TV series from Disney +.
TV Shows from Greg Iles

Occupied

In the near future, Norway is occupied by Russia on behalf of the European Union, due to the fact that the newly elected environmental friendly Norwegian government has stopped the all important oil- and gas-production in the North Sea.
Greg Iles
Writer
Re-watching the excellent @Occupied_series —about a “soft occupation” of Norway by Russia. Apart from smart plotting, they do an amazing job of creating a huge canvas with what I assume is a TV budget. Has sort of a Norwegian Ridley Scott feel.
TV Shows from Greg Iles

SEAL Team

The lives of the elite Navy Seals as they train, plan and execute the most dangerous, high-stakes missions our country can ask.
Greg Iles
Writer
Last night I dreamed a perfect TV series: @David_Boreanaz of "Seal Team" playing Travis McGee.
TV Shows from Greg Iles

Nobel

Lieutenant Erling Riiser is on his way back to Norway after a long stay in Afghanistan. Much has gone wrong, several soldiers are missing from the Hercelus-plane. After only one day in Norway, Erling receives a text message saying an old acquaintance from Afghanistan is in Oslo - which can mean only one thing: A woman's life is in danger
Greg Iles
Writer
I've discovered a fantastic cable TV show: the Norwegian #NOBEL on Netflix. Afghan war fallout comes to Oslo. Writing and acting right up there with @BabylonBerlin, only Nobel portrays absolute realism while Babylon Berlin has stunning, hypnotic surrealism atop its grittiness.
TV Shows from Greg Iles

Ozark

A financial adviser drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder $500 million in five years to appease a drug boss.
Greg Iles
Writer
W Season 2 Ep 9 #Ozark joined the first rank of cable TV writing. Insightful and true depiction of marriage/family, bookended by "Wichita Lineman." Bravo!
Music from Greg Iles

A Junkie's Lament — James Taylor

Greg Iles
Writer
I think one of the best written and most heartfelt (among many) is "Junkie's Lament."
Music from Greg Iles

Fall At Your Feet (Solo at the Seymour Centre, 2010) — Neil Finn

Greg Iles
Writer
"Fall At Your Feet" by Neil Finn (Crowded House) was released 31 years ago. One of the best songs written in many years. @neilFinn is a truly great singer and songwriter.
Music from Greg Iles

Helplessly Hoping — Crosby, Stills & Nash

Greg Iles
Writer
At the end of the day, probably the best CSN song. The purest, simplest, and truest expression of their unique harmony. And deceptively simple guitar by Stills.
Music from Greg Iles

Message In A Bottle — The Police

Greg Iles
Writer
What would your theme song be? "Message in a Bottle" by The Police.
People recommended by Greg Iles
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Greg Iles TOP 5 Favorite Authors

Greg Iles gushes on other writers he adores.
Greg Iles
Writer
Greg Iles gushes on other writers he adores.