Excerpt from Natchez Burning by Greg Iles, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"I guess so. What I'm 'posed to use for money? Man can't ride the train for free."

Albert leaned over and slid five twenty-dollar bills under the bottom of the organ.

"Tuck that in your pants. That foldin' money's gonna get you started in Chi- town."

Pooky whistled in amazement inside the organ box. "Can we really make it, Mr. Albert? Them fellas mean to lynch me for sure."

"We'll make it. But we wouldn't even be in this mess if you'd listened to me. I told you that girl was just trying to prove something to her daddy, messing with you."

Pooky whimpered like a frightened dog. "I can't he'p it, Mr. Albert. I love Katy. She loves me, too."

The boy sounded like he was barely holding himself together. Albert shook his head, then got up and returned to the display room, once more belting the blues like a bored man working alone.

He'd met Howlin' Wolf back in '55, at Haney's Big House up the street, back when the Wolf was playing the chitlin circuit. Wolf's keyboard man had been sick, so Haney called Albert down from his store to fill in. Albert had met most of the great ones that way, over the years. They'd all swung through Ferriday at one time or another, since it lay so close to the Mississippi River and Highway 61. Ray Charles, Little Walter, B.B., even Muddy himself. White boys, too. Albert had taught Jerry Lee Lewis more than a few licks on piano.

Excerpted from Natchez Burning by Greg Iles. Copyright © 2015 by Greg Iles. Excerpted by permission of William Morrow. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.