The Devil's Punchbowl [Hardcover]

 

 

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"When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time." -- Luke 4:13 (NAS)

Many thrillers attempt to engage you by causing you to empathize with the hero or heroine who is being threatened with some horrible fate. The Devil's Punchbowl takes this technique to an extreme by successfully providing lots of good reasons to feel threatened if you empathize with any of a dozen characters in the book, each of whom is pushed to the edge of what anyone can expect to stand. Greg Iles takes that technique one step further by repeatedly providing hope of escape . . . before utterly wiping out the opportunity.

Before going further, let me caution you that this book contains more scenes involving disgusting forms of inhumanity to man and animals than I can remember among novels I've read in recent years. If one awful crime doesn't leave you feeling horrible, another one will. This book definitely disturbed my sleep . . . and it may do the same for you.

The story involves Penn Cage, who has appeared in two earlier novels, The Quiet Game and Turning Angel. In The Devil's Punchbowl, Cage is halfway through his first term as mayor of Natchez. He gave up being a novelist in hopes of reforming his old hometown through bringing white students back into the public schools. That hope hasn't been realized, and the major change he's brought about is aiding legalized gambling on riverboats. An old school friend, Tim Jessup, approaches Cage with the bad news that the riverboats have brought more than a new source of jobs and taxes . . . they've brought corruption of the worst kinds involving blood "sports" and prostitution involving underage girls. Tim promises to deliver the goods to nail the criminals, and Cage has to decide how to handle it all. Before long, the story takes an unexpectedly personal twist when Cage and his family become subject to threats and violence that would chill the blood of anyone.

Unlike many people, Cage isn't one to run . . . even though he's tempted. Before long, he begins to assemble a team of devoted, trustworthy people to help him. But the bad guys have some powerful allies, too. It's nip and tuck throughout.

The subtext of the book is questioning how "civilized" people should deal with those who are totally corrupt and dangerous . . . when the authorities are corrupt or unable to help. What is the right of self-defense in such a situation? Whether you agree with the answer of not, the book will certainly cause you to look deeply within yourself to imagine what you would do in the same situation. That's one of the book's great strengths.

The book's main weaknesses are two-fold:

1. The violence and evil-doing are truly disgusting. I felt like I needed to take a shower every time I read a few pages to get the moral filth off me.

2. The plot adds a lot of twists and turns to make you feel helpless against these evil-doers. I thought that much of this plotting was unnecessary and just stretched out the book. I prefer a more compact and direct plot.

Iles writes books filled with irony. Irony because his stories usually take place in Nachez, MS, where Iles lives. I don't know what the town has ever done to him, but the characters in his books can be violent and depraved. I'm not sure I ever want to visit Nachez! That being said, this book is a tough read. Not because it's not good, which it is, but because the story line is gritty, dark, violent and at times hopeless. The story revolves around the town mayor who stumbles across a criminal operation running off one of the floating gambling casinos in his town. When he starts to investigate, he realizes that the situation is worse than he can imagine. He can no longer trust anyone, and calls in some outside help. Then when his family is threatened and his girlfriend is kidnapped, the stakes have become higher. This book is not for the faint of heart. There are graphically described dog-fighting scenes, rape scenes and murder scenes throughout virtually the entire book. The book is well written. Character development is perfect and the storyline is woven with precision. This book is not for everyone. I usually read fast, but found myself having to put the book down after just reading a couple of chapters, to ease the turmoil in my mind. Then when the story was coming to a close, I couldn't get enough. Recommended for people that like thrillers and can handle the content.

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