The Devil's Punchbowl

By: Greg Iles

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 23 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

As a prosecutor in Houston, Penn Cage sent killers to death row. But as mayor of his hometown - Natchez, Mississippi - Penn will face his most dangerous threat. Urged by old friends to try to restore this fading jewel of the Old South, Penn has ridden into office on a tide of support for change. But in its quest for new jobs and fresh money, Natchez has turned to casino gambling, and now five steamboats float on the river beside the old slave market, like props from Gone With the Wind.

But one boat isn't like the others.

Rumor has it that the Magnolia Queen has found a way to pull the big players from Las Vegas to its Mississippi backwater. And with them - on sleek private jets that slip in and out of town like whispers in the night - come pro football players, rap stars, and international gamblers, all sharing an unquenchable taste for one thing: blood sport - and the dark vices that go with it. When a childhood friend of Penn's who brings him evidence of these crimes is brutally murdered, he begins a quest to find the men responsible. But the local authorities have been corrupted by the money and power of his hidden enemy and, with his family's lives at stake, Penn realizes his only allies are those bound to him by blood or honor.

Together they must defeat a killer who has an almost preternatural ability to anticipate - and counter - their every move. Ultimately, victory will depend on a bold stroke that will leave one of Penn's allies dead - and Natchez changed forever.

©2009 Greg Iles (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Tough listen

There are parts of this book that are brutal to listen to. Raw. But it is in sequence to the Pen Cage series. If you have listened to the series up to this point, it wont shock you. Its a cliff hanger though- fyi. Be ready to get the next book asap!

Good story, bad narrator.

Yet another book where the narrator raises and lowers his voice for dramatic effect but makes it very difficult to understand. I know that the narration cannot be monotone but this narrator when lowering his voice kind of mumbled the words especially when doing women's voices. I had to keep raising and lowering the volume after rewinding in order to understand the story.

Southern Thriller

Greg Iles writes long, complex southern mysteries long on small city customs and social stratification in the New South. His protagonist that appears in three of his novels is Penn Cage, a prosecuting attorney. This book has all of the elements of a good thriller,plus very solid character development. You care for the main players and Iles gives you time to get engaged with them as well as a murky plot. There is a lot of action, so the plot has a steady rush to the conclusion. Recommended very highly.

Good story

Got off with a sluggish start. I always have to adjust to Dick Hill. (Where is George Guidall?). Too much information and graphics on the dog fights for me. I skipped past those parts. Unfortunately, it is a reality. I like long books that hold my attention and this one did with only a few places that drew out a bit much.
Overall.....I recommend this one for those long drives or long days.

harley

I like Greg Iles and this one was pretty good as far as the novel goes but the narrator was horrid. He made the main character sound like a tired old man, or worse, a politician giving a boring speech. Pauses between many words, even pauses within the words! Just awful. It was all I could do to keep the faith and listen to the end.

Very well done!

I really enjoyed this latest book by Greg Iles. The story was a bit graphic, but it was a necessary part of the overall tone. What I found difficult to handle was the narration by Dick Hill. While his accent was very realistic, I found that I had to continually adjust the volume throughout the narration due to Mr. Hill's inflection moving from loud to barely a whisper. It was extremely distracting.

Atrocious narration, story OK not great

I couldn't agree more with the comments about how distracting the narrator is. His pseudo-Southern accent and poor volume modulation eventually drove me to rebuy this book in the Kindle version, on which the remainder of this review is based.

The Devil's Punchbowl is more of a summer read ("beach book"), long on plot and relatively short on character development, than are the two previous Penn Cage novels. This is especially true if you haven't already been introduced to Penn Cage, his family, and his love interest, Caitlin Masters. The plot stands on its own, but I didn't think the book gave the same insights into character motivation that The Quiet Game did.

If this is your first Penn Cage novel, I'd suggest you choose The Quiet Game instead.

The character development in The Quiet Game is top notch and the plot revolves around a Houston DA who returns to his childhood home in Natchez, MS and gets involved in solving a civil rights murder that took place in 1968. The combination of compelling characters, deep insight into the Southern mentality, and a fascinating plot made for a superb book. The second Penn Cage novel, Turning Angel, was almost equally good.

The Devil's Punchbowl, on the other hand, stretched the limits of credulity somewhat (plot involves international gambling ring) and has less local color that the two previous books in the series. And the graphic descriptions of dog fights and the way fighting dogs are mistreated are quite unpleasant. To be fair, the dog fight theme is integral to the story line, not merely gratuitous. But if this sort of thing bothers you, you might think twice. In fact, had this not been a novel written by one of my favorite authors, I probably would never have read past the first dog fight scene.

Another Great Greg Iles Book

Another great book by this author. All of Greg Iles's work has kept me totally into the story and not willing to shut it off. Iles captures the essence of the deep south in his stories of Natchez and the Mississippi River. Dick Hill's narration is superb. Keep them coming Greg Iles and I will keep buying them!

Another great Iles book

I'm a fan of Greg Iles' work, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm also kind of a Dick Hill fan, and have often bought books by authors I know nothing about, just because he's the narrator.

Dick Hill's only failing is his inability to give voice to female characters. Maybe he gets nagged a lot at home, because when he does a female voice, she generally sounds pretty shrieky and excitable, so I see where some of the other reviewers come from.

Still, I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and would certainly recommend it very highly.

Slow, got better then slow again.

This book starts out slow and I almost didn’t go ahead and listen to it. But I figured it’d get better. I’ve listened to many of this authors books. It’s not quite as up to par as his other books, he uses too many metaphors, but it got better. Then the end dragged on. I guess the end leaves way for a sequel. I’ll download and listen to other books by him.