Greg Iles

Greg Iles
Greg Iles in 2013 Greg Iles in 2013
Born	Mark Gregory Iles (1960-04-08)April 8, 1960 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Died	August 15, 2025(2025-08-15) (aged 65) Natchez, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Mississippi
Period	1993–2024
Spouse	Carrie McGee (divorced) Caroline Hungerford ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	4

Mark Gregory Iles (April 8, 1960 – August 15, 2025) was an American novelist who lived in Mississippi. He published seventeen novels and one novella, spanning a variety of genres.

Early life

Mark Gregory Iles was born on April 8, 1960, in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, where his physician father ran the U.S. Embassy Medical Clinic. He was raised in Natchez, Mississippi, the setting of many of his novels. After attending Trinity Episcopal Day School, he graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1983.

Career

Iles spent several years as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in the band Frankly Scarlet. He quit the band after he was married and began working on his first novel, Spandau Phoenix, a thriller about Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess. Spandau Phoenix was published in 1992.

In 2002, Iles wrote the screenplay 24 Hours from his novel of the same name. Rewritten by director Don Roos, it was renamed Trapped. Iles then rewrote the script during the shoot, at the request of the producers and actors.

In 2011, Iles was seriously injured in a traffic accident on U.S. Route 61 near Natchez. He sustained life-threatening injuries, including a ruptured aorta. He was put into an induced coma for eight days, and lost his right leg below the knee. During his three-year recovery, he wrote three volumes of a trilogy set in Natchez, Mississippi, and featuring former prosecutor Penn Cage.

Iles was a member of the literary musical group The Rock Bottom Remainders, which includes or has included authors Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, and James McBride. In July 2013, he co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the group. The ebook combines essays, fiction, musings, email exchanges and conversations, photographs, audio and video clips, and interactive quizzes to give readers a view into the private lives of the authors/musicians.

Personal life and death

Iles was first married to Carrie McGee; the couple had two children before divorcing. In 2014, he married Caroline Hungerford, with whom he also had two children.

Iles was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, in 1996. By the early 2020s, the cancer had progressed substantially, leaving him requiring a wheelchair; he underwent a stem cell transplant before the publication of his final novel, Southern Man (2024). He died from the disease at his Natchez home on August 15, 2025, at the age of 65.

Works

Fiction

• Spandau Phoenix (1993)
• Black Cross (1995)
• Mortal Fear (1997)
• The Quiet Game (1999)
• 24 Hours (2000)
• Dead Sleep (2001)
• Sleep No More (2002)
• The Footprints of God (2003) (also titled Dark Matter)
• Blood Memory (2005)
• Turning Angel (2005)
• True Evil (2006)
• Third Degree (2007)
• The Devil's Punchbowl (2009)
• The Death Factory (2014) novella
• Natchez Burning (2014)
• The Bone Tree (2015)
• Mississippi Blood (2017)
• Cemetery Road (2019)
• Southern Man (2024)

Nonfiction

• Hard Listening (2013), with Rock Bottom Remainders

External links

• Greg Iles at IMDb
• The Official Website of Greg Iles
• Greg Isles discography at Discogs