What real history does Iles use to set the stage for events in The Bone Tree?

What real history does Iles use to set the stage for events in The Bone Tree?

THE BONE TREE is bone-chilling reading at times since it includes references to the Vietnam War, the KKK, Kennedy 50-cent pieces, and three tragic assassinations : JFK, RFK, and MLK. At times I found myself wondering if Iles had read some documents that the average U.S. citizen had not.

Iles deftly uses the theories surrounding the assassination of JFK, RFK and MLK to weave his story. There are still many conspiracy theories that people adhere to and Iles takes advantage of these scenarios to construct his own.

The assassinations of JFK,RFK, and MLK were real and Iles magnifies and expands on known facts with theories. Also the sadistic dealings of the KKK and similar groups actually occurred.

In addition to the above already mentioned, Iles includes the story of Lee Harvey Oswald - I was intrigued by his life, his motives, his desire to go to Cuba, etc. and wondered how much of that was true. I plan to google it to find out.

Yes, he weaves the important events into his story. One also sees sees the killing of the three young men who worked as voting registers and the killing of Emmitt Till.

Rebeccar said it well and I agree with everything she listed. There is also the issue of race relations throughout the book.

The decade of the 60's was a decade of political unrest and racial tensions. Mr. Iles gives this novel and the first one an authentic look at the history of the era. The book is a wonderful representation of war was going on at the time, especially with the Kennedy assination and Lee Harvey Oswald. The authenticity is what makes the book so great.

Iles combines so much of history from JFK through the civil rights freedom workers that occurred in the south. It was all very realistic and possible in the south.

When Iles ties actual historical events to the story in The Bone Tree (the '60s assassinations, for example) it made reading the book that much more difficult for me. Not sure whether it's because I'm old enough to recall exactly where I was when they all occurred and the emotional hit of them at the time. But reading about them tied to events in the books really cause mini-PTSD episodes or something very similar. I just knowI know I reacted emotionally and viscerally while reading about Tom and the Mafia and the Eagles. I got similar "flashbacks" reading King's 11/22/64. And I still cannot watch movies about the Vietnam War for the same reason.

The actual historical events which Iles uses in The Bone Tree were chilling. There were a number of times when you actually were reliving the events; i.e., the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations, as well as the racial tensions of the '60's. He used the conspiracy theories effectively, causing the reader's imagination to soar toward the possibility there was much hidden in reports of these events.

The issue of race division was very real, and very threatening in the mid 20th century in the United States. This story incorporates many of the major events that happened in the 60's in a way that makes it feel like a history book brought to life.

Yes, Isles did extensive research on the real life Silver Dollar Group, a violent offshoot of the KKK. They were based in Louisiana and Mississippi. They carried coins just like the Double Eagles in Isles' novel. And he also took real cases of KKK killings for the novel. He even based the character of Henry Sexton, from the first novel in the trilogy, on a real life newspaper editor from a small town.

Isles is pretty loose with history although he refers to real events. The JFK conspiracy thread almost made me stop reading the book.

Iles brings together RFK, JFK, MLK, The Vietnam War and the KKK and. Race Riots in the South in the 1960's.He also used Conspiracy Theorres and brings up the Mafia and The Double Eagles a. Very bad secret underground society.