When I discovered that Greg Iles Natchez Burning was appearing on several To read lists, I decided to read the other books in the story first. I liked this one, but parts of it were difficult to read. The scenes and descriptions of dogfighting and the brutal treatment of women by the "bad guys" were almost too graphic. The main character, Penn Cage, has trouble in this novel figuring out who he is and what he wants. I wanted to know more about his father, the town's beloved "doc", and became less interested in the story of Penn and the tortured relationship with his ex Caitlin Masters. Fir action, however, the story line cannot be beat and I wound up reading far into the night to finish. The second Penn Cage novel was an elegiac ode to mysoginistic perverts. So the good news here is that in this third novel of the series, Iles seems to have decided that middle-aged men having sex with underage girls is now an irredeemably Bad Thing.The bad news is that the Devil's Punchbowl leaves the courtroom behind, depriving readers of the kinds of courtroom scenes that helped make the Quiet Game fun to read. I suspect that Iles was less interested in writing a mystery than he was in writing a morality tale. Less John Grisham, more James Lee Burke. There are worse Burke-imitators out there, to be sure. But Iles draws villains who are easy targets to begin with (dogfighters!) and gives up no chance to make them even more obviously villainous along the way (dogfighters who rape!). By the end of the book, you realize that the lovely, ornate writing conceals some very simplistic ideas.
What do You think about Devil's Punchbowl, The (2009)?
Took a bit to get in to this book. Once I did it was fast paced and good book
—japox
kind of long and long winded, but an excellent read! love him as an author!
—kelly
My favorite so far of the penn cage novels. I love them all though!
—MaggieStarz
Too much about dog-fighting which I hate.
—seba
Thriller. Satisfying. Will read more.
—thuonggiieex3
