The Devil's Punchbowl

His books have been recommended to me by a dear friend, and as much as I love strong characters and murder mysteries, I find most of his writing too dark and violent esp in the Devils Punchbowl! It is rare I do not finish a book, but I finally got tired of the torture of people and animals, rape and murder! It may have been well written, but do I have to read this depravity for 100s of pages?

I love Greg Iles and I thought I really liked Dick Hill narrating as Pen Cage, but when I tried listening to this in the car, I could barely hear it at times unless I jammed the volume to 16. Additionally, the story is TOO violent for my taste. Animal torture is especially vile and it is not entertaining to me to listen to it over and over. I circled back to listen to The Devli's Punchbowl after reading the book 15+ years ago and now I remember not liking it the first time around.

Narrator was so difficult to hear - deep voice, intermittently dropped volume. Story line mad me persevere but the violence was brutal at times...

great book!!!

Book was very good and kept me on the edge of my seat as did the rest of Greg Iles' books. His books are a good escape but this one was a little brutal! Narration for 'The Devil's Punchbowl' was irritating and sounded too fake and extreme.

I was lost during this slow moving book, and the reader was horrible. Maybe that's why I was lost, I couldn't understand him. He mumbled a good portion of the book.

OUTSTANDING, holds your attention...I would have given it a 5 had it not been about dog fights as I'm an animal lover and found the wonderfully explained details a bit disturbing, but not enough to stop listening to the rest of the story. I recommend.

This book is really good. I am putting his other books on my list. It is full of twists and turns . I would give it 6 stars if I could.

Amazing! - contrary to the other comments regarding the reader... I thought it was a perfect fit... I love all of Iles novels

I'm a Greg Iiles fan and have enjoyed several of his books. The reader on this one and the production was terrible with constantly changing volume. The fake accents were very distracting.

I tried to listen to The Devil's Punchbowl but the reader's overly dramatic voice was so distracting that I could not pay attention to the book. I was really disappointed because I have heard great things about the book.

It starts out almost unintelligible. Then the reader finally gets it. I got all the way to the last few discs but then the brutality was just too much for me. Naked female sex slaves and dogs are just too much like a porn movie for my tastes.

Greg Iles is a top flight writer and with this epic the reluctant hero, now the mayor, fights a battle with very evil casino people. I don't ever recall characters so sadistic in his previous books. Still, it's a fine effort and will keep you entertained. Only one gripe, the narrator, while good, sometimes talks so low and gravely that you can't understand what he is saying.