Greg Iles’ new thriller, “Natchez Burning,” recently hit bookshelves. He took time to have an interview with us about his new bewitching page-turner.

Cliff McCollum: You had a serious accident in 2011 right before this book was due at the publisher that left you hospitalized for some time. How did that change the book and your approach to the characters?

Greg Iles: It affected my whole perception on a lot of levels. When I woke up out of that coma, as I started coming back, I said to myself that I wasn’t going to pull any punches on this story, to give it the treatment it deserves because of the subject matter.

CM: How much of the book is based in the actual history of Civil Rights-era Mississippi?

GI: The motives that formed the background of the book were based on actual FBI cold cases that really happened. Most of them weren’t very far from where I grew up on the border of Mississippi near Louisiana, but growing up I never knew about them — white people kind of lived in a protective bubble back then.

CM: But there are things you remember?

GI: Oh, sure. There were things I was ignorant of, but the biggest Ku Klux Klan meeting in the United States took place in Liberty Park, just a short walk from our house. My father walked me down the road and there were men, women and children all dressed in white. Even the horses had Klan robes. My father didn’t agree with their views, but he knew it would be important I saw what was going on, saw what would become history.

CM: You’ve said previously that the Tom Cage character is based on your father, who died as you were writing this book. How did that affect you and the book?

GI: It was hard. I wish he would have been there throughout the writing. He gave me his blessing in creating the character, but I found myself missing him as a resource. The sins of Tom Cage are pretty serious in the book, but the sins of my father were not the same as Tom’s.

CM: In many ways, this isn’t just a thriller or a look at Civil Rights crimes. Is it correct to say this is a book about fathers and sons?

GI: Definitely. We all grow up thinking our parents are perfect, but eventually we’re shattered when we learn they are human just like we are. It’s a tough experience we all go through, and now, as a father, I know that day will some time come for my children.

CM: What would you say to readers who might be leery of a book that brings up the violence and hatred of Civil Rights Mississippi?

GI: If I want to say anything, so much attention is coming to it because of the Civil Rights angle. It’s still very much a thriller, but the background very much is woven through events that represent that era. People are going to think they don’t want to read this because of the horrible things associated with that era, but there can be good to come out of that darkness.

CM: You’re a Mississippi native who approaches the state and shows it in its entirety: good and bad.

GI: I’m not in any way trying to make Mississippi look bad. I’m a loyal son of the state, but I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by turning away the bad stuff. Positive things can grow out of bad things. There’s a reason our state has produced so many great artists, so many of them black, Great suffering produced great art. One of the human responses to great suffering is to take all of that pain and put it into something positive.