The Devil's Punchbowl

Greg Iles returns to his old stomping ground of Natchez Mississippi and its faithful mayor/lawyer/novelist Penn Cage in his latest thriller. We also see, if only peripherally, characters who have played roles in his other works: Tom Cage, Daniel Kelly, Chris Sheppard, Carl Sims and Danny McDavitt. This time Penn, on the verge of resigning his position as mayor due to his disappointment over his lack of accomplishment, reconnects with a childhood friend. His friend Tim, after experiencing the usual literary horrors of drug abuse, has reclaimed his life and currently serves as a card dealer on one of the riverboat casinos that Penn has been instrumental in bringing to the city.

But Tim doesn't have good news. There's money laundering, dog show more fighting, and forced sexual molestation happening on the boat. Tim understands the danger of knowing and telling Penn of the events, but feels he must do so. Before Penn can obtain all of the information he needs, Tim is kidnapped, tortured and finally killed by the runners of the illegal operations. Penn himself is forced to comply with the bad guys' demands, lest his family be hurt. What follows is the story of how they stop the evil from continuing.

Graphically disturbing, this novel is not for the faint of heart (or stomach!). Protracted scenes of vicious dogfighting, rape, and torture make it difficult at times to persevere through, though Iles still writes deftly. Penn is a decent but flawed character - it's easy for him to question his ideals when those he loves are in danger. Indeed, this is a hallmark of this tale; in the earlier chapters, Penn's former girlfriend argues vigorously against vigilante justice, insisting the perpetrators be brought to justice through the legal system. After she's been through an ordeal herself, she is given the opportunity to choose vigilante justice herself, and Iles does a remarkable job of showing her struggle.

As an audiobook, this is an amazing work. The reader, Dick Hill, is a magnificent reader. I have lived in the south all of my life, and take lots of teasing about my accent, but it honestly took me a little while to even understand Mr. Hill, he was that good. His inflection and entire reading were spot on. show less

Lies, cruelty, and murder are in us all—this is the lesson of this nail-biting Penn Cage novel—the third in the series. Two years after Penn becomes the mayor of his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, he's ready to throw in the towel. The changes he wanted to make to improve the school system failed due to prejudices deeply rooted in the South. Shad Johnson, the DA in town, is still a formidable adversary, and Caitlin is gone. Then, a secret meeting with Tim Jessup, an old friend making allegations of chilling crimes being committed up and down the river, changes everything. After Tim's brutal murder, Penn's family is threatened, and the story explodes into a kill-or-be-killed struggle with international thugs protected by the show more government. I couldn't put this book down once I started reading. The Devil's Punchbowl is the most suspenseful and exciting Penn Cage novel Mr. Iles has written. The villains in this book are sadistic, evil monsters. Beware that some cruel and despicable acts they commit on humans and animals are hard to read. show less

This is a book about dogfighting & the other blood sports that surround it. You know the ones - drugs, human trafficking - the list goes on & on.

When Michael Vick was convicted for dogfighting & sent to prison for 23 months, many people wanted to minimize the offense. Some argued that God has given us dominion over animals so Vick's actions were inconsequential. People that are involved in dogfighting don't just pit their dogs against one another to fight to the death for a ravenous crowd exploiting the love of human beings that has been bred into these most domesticated of species. They also torture & kill these dogs for poor performance, including electrocuting them, starving them to death, or just beating them to death. They use bait show more animals, obtained from shelters or stolen from people's yards, to test a dog's fighting instinct. The list of cruel behaviors also goes on & on. It's very hard for me to believe that a loving God would support the overtly cruel treatment of animals.

Penn Cage, a recurring character in Greg Iles' novels, returns - this time as Mayor of Natchez, MS. A childhood friend who works on one of the casino boats brings him pictures that show dogfighting & various kinds of sexual cruelty to underaged girls - acts that are being facilitated & sponsored by the casino. This novel is the story of Mr. Cage & his friends & allies trying to stop these actions from continuing to poison their town.

Unlike his other thrillers, Greg Iles casts a wide net here - much of the action is global & plays out on a national security stage. I think his books are better when they deal with more local events & players, but this is a good thriller. Penn Cage can be a self-righteous martyr, but as this novel progresses those tendencies become minimized in the face of the utter depravity that our heroes (& heroines) are up against.

This book is filled with graphic violence - against animals, against women, against men - these are equal opportunity offenders. If you are squeamish about this sort of thing, this may not be the book for you. The violence is not gratuitous or entertaining. It is integral to the plot that Mr. Iles has built & it moves the story along. It also gave me a lot to think about with regard to bloodsport & its place in our culture.

A good well-written page-turner, although somewhat less successful than some of Iles' other books. As an argument for how awful the reality of dogfighting is, however, this scores a 15 on a 1 to 10 scale. That may or may not be what you want from a thriller, but I'm glad I read it. show less

Playaway Audio book read by Dick Hill

Book three in the Penn Cage series finds our hero settled in as mayor of his hometown – Natchez Mississippi. Still he cannot help but keep certain ways of thinking that served him well as a prosecuting attorney in big-city Houston Texas. Like many other towns eager for jobs and an infusion of cash into their economies, Natchez has turned to casino gambling, and five “steamboats” float on the Mississippi River attracting tourists and locals alike. But the Magnolia Queen seems set apart. Somehow she brings in the big gamblers who arrive in private jets for special games of chance; and crime comes with these big dollars. When a childhood friend of Penn’s makes arrangements to meet at the show more cemetery with a promise of evidence of the criminal activity, things get nasty quickly. Corruption has spread throughout all official channels and Penn can trust only those closest to him.

I’d never read a book by Iles before and wasn’t sure what to expect (other than a fast-paced thriller). I didn’t realize when I picked it up that this was book three in a series, but I’m not sure I missed much by not having read the previous books. Iles gave me enough background on the central characters and their relationships to Penn to make me comfortable.

This is less of a murder mystery than it is a grand international conspiracy with “national security” interests trying to stop Penn from his own investigation. Iles peoples the book with colorful characters, including an ex-Texas Ranger gone undercover, a mysterious beautiful Chinese woman, and an evangelical preacher with a secret vice. I thought the plot got overly complicated, but the action still moved at a fairly quick pace and I was sufficiently interested to keep turning pages. I did find the book pretty violent – dog fighting is part of the plot and Iles spares no details of that bloody “sport.” One of the bad guys is also a sexual sadist and descriptions of his deeds left little to the imagination. Neither of these elements was more than what was necessary given the plot, but readers who find this kind of thing particularly distasteful are best warned away.

Dick Hill did a credible job with the audio though his voice tends to be too gravelly to convincingly voice the women characters. Still his ability with various accents, especially when he’s required to switch quickly from a cultured British accent to a Texas Ranger’s twang to an Irish brogue, really added to the enjoyment of the audio. show less

Cage has been mayor for two years, and was instrumental in expanding the riverboat casino industry in the city. Cage is considering resigning to spend more time with his family when a childhood friend Tim Jessup tells Cage of some horrible evils and corruption occuring on one boat, the Magnolia Queen. Jessup offers evidence of prostitution and dog fighting and promises to get more if Cage is willing to help. Cage agrees, but Jessup is murdered the next night and then his entire family is threatened by the sauve Englishman Jonathan Sands. Sands wants the evidence Jessup took, or Cage's family could be in danger. Cage is conflicted and doesn't know if he should fight Sands, or just look for the evidence, surrender it, and ignore Sands show more like every one else in the town.

Greg Iles is a great storyteller, but what makes his best novels special is how the story is unfolded and shaped and how much extra depth there is besides just the plot. It's so much more than a mere whodunit that is the model for so many other popular authors. show less

Although I already have 40-some books in my wishlist, I now have to add at least one, maybe five, more. I like this book a lot.

THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL is my first Greg Iles book, which is the third in a series about the Penn Cage character. While Iles is good about supplying background information, so a reader can start these books out of order, THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL ends on a cliffhanger. Now I want to read the next and maybe the next and the next (still to be published) in the series.

In this book, Cage is the mayor of Natchez, Mississippi. A casino there, which he had hoped would help revive Natchez's faltering economy, is owned by a corrupt Irishman who is bilking Natchez out of tax money, running dog-fighting rings, and supplying his show more customers (and himself) with prostitutes. Cage gets wind of it when his old friend, who had worked as a dealer in the casino, is murdered, and the murder is apparently tied to the casino.

A couple parts of this book (descriptions of dogs and rape scenes) were hard for me to read; they were too graphic for me. But you can skim those if they bother you, too, and not lose track of the story.

One other criticism has to do with two of the other characters: Cage's friend Daniel Kelly (note Iles' use of a good-guy Irish-American to balance the bad-guy Irishman) and girlfriend Caitlin Masters. They seemed superhuman to me, especially Kelly. He was a Bruce-Willis-type character. She could kick off a tin roof with her bare feet after she walked up a wall and while she was upside down. They are both a little too amazing.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more by Greg Iles. show less

Having read 5 other books by the author, Punchbowl redefines the meaning of page turner. Its off to the races from the first pages and non-stop right to the end. Like all great authors careful attention to details, dialog and momentum combine with a family driven theme while continual plot twists come out of left field keeping the reader engaged. In all the author's books a yin/yang balance of good/evil, up/down, fast/slow with characters we easily relate with is used effectively. For any interested in reading the Natchez Burning series, I highly recommend reading this book first. Regardless this is my favorite when compared to the other five, but only by a narrow margin..Highly recommended in all respects.