Greg Iles, the Mississippi-born author best known for his Natchez Burning trilogy, has died at the age of 65 after a long battle with cancer.
Iles passed away Friday from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer he had been fighting for decades, his agent Dan Conaway announced in a Facebook post on Saturday. First diagnosed in 1996, he kept his illness private until the release of his final novel Southern Man in 2024.
Born in Germany, Iles moved to Natchez, Mississippi, at the age of three, where he developed a lasting bond with the region. His acclaimed Natchez Burning trilogy — historical thrillers set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South in the 1960s — explored themes of race, justice, and class.
Conaway remembered Iles as “warm, funny, fearless, and completely unique,” praising his storytelling genius and his ability to blend humanity, moral conviction, and meticulous craft.
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Iles also survived a near-fatal car crash in 2011 on Highway 61 near Natchez, which left him with a ruptured aorta, partial leg amputation, and eight days in a medically induced coma. He later recovered and returned to writing.
Beyond literature, he performed with The Rock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of well-known authors including Stephen King and Amy Tan.
Source: Agency