Reviews

Stark Realities – Book of the Week at Crime Thriller Hound w/c 12/10/2015

In Many Ways – e-Thriller of the Month for April 2013 atwww.e-thriller.com

A simple story good poor guy made rich bad? Or does he have a hidden agenda? Recommended and riveting reading from a relatively new author.

Rating: Riveting.

Stark Contrasts – e-Thriller of the Month for May 2013 atwww.e-thriller.com

Convinced that modern life is rubbish? Living in a town or city where you feel alienated and alone?  Fed up of being pushed from pillar to post by rude people who push their way on the Tube and young yobs who play their music too loud from ‘personal’ headphones and gob their gum out on the pavement?

Well Citizen V is your man or woman! Striking back for the little man or woman they embark on a series of vigilante actions against the tide of yobs plaguing the streets. Making sure that the ‘punishment fits the crime’ our latter-day hero strikes back. But has this vigilantism gone too far as the relatively mild punishments turn to maiming and murder?

Tasked to find the mysterious Citizen V, the beloved darling of the media, world weary Detective Stark enters the fray. Entertaining reading and will make you think twice again before tailgating on the roads, spitting gum or playing your music too loud on public transport!

Rating: Great satisfaction for any reader!

4/5 Review of Stark Contrasts on Crime Fiction Lover 

http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2013/01/stark-contrasts/

Pandora’s Pitbull – Indie Book of the Month August 2012

“Fantastic book! I absolutely love Carroll’s writing style. Carroll is a true talent at writing intelligent and witty material.”

RA Stephenson author of “Collapse (New America #1)”

5 stars Fantastic debut novel, 23 April 2012 By Shinagawa

You know when you’re in the cinema and the scary bit you don’t want to watch comes on. You close your eyes because you don’t want to see what’s coming next. Well, in a number of parts of In Many Ways, this is what I wanted to do; close my eyes. But of course, this is a book not cinema. So you can’t close your eyes; you just have to avert them slightly and take in the horrors laid out in electronic text. Take chapter one for example. I won’t spoil it for you but that torture instrument is the stuff of nightmares! But it’s not all violence. There’s a ripping yarn there with intelligent use of language that really makes you think without disrupting the flow. It’s also realistically set in tourist – and not so tourist – Scotland; the Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow will never seem the same again. I think I also detect a little social comment from the author. So to sum up, a first class debut novel from Mr Carroll. I look forward to many more from him and have just downloaded his second novel, Pandora’s Pitbull.

5 stars  Excellent! Grabs you on the first page and doesn’t let go!

September 1, 2012 By Richard Stephenson (Texas, USA)

Pandora’s Pitbull by Peter Carroll had me hooked on the first page. I can honestly say that very few indie books have managed to do that. I’m usually content to wait for the first few chapters or thirty pages, whichever comes first, for a book to sink its claws into me and not let go till the very end. Any book, indie or not, must do that or I will simply stop reading. Carroll managed to do that on literally the first page. I knew immediately that I had found a gem.
What was it that grabbed me so immediately? Well, two things really. The first was the writing style. Carroll has a style that I seek out regularly in authors. He has a talent at writing clever, witty, and intelligent prose. This talent carries over in all aspects of the novel. The second was the “hook” that any writer will tell you is crucial to deliver early on. A hook has to set the book apart from other similar books, it makes the book unique and special; more importantly, it has to grab hold of you. Many a literary agent in the publishing world has sent rejection letters stating that the book just didn’t grab the reader’s attention early on to keep them reading. Well, that is not the case in Pandora’s Pitbull, Carroll wastes no time at all grabbing hold of you.
On the first page, an unknown character is near death, fighting to stay alive. Who is he? What happened to him? Did he survive? How did he survive? And one more time because it drove me nuts – Who is he? That entire first scene stayed with me for the rest of the book. The world started to slowly come apart at the seams, and then very quickly descended into chaos. While I enjoyed the entire book, the hook that Mr. Carroll sunk into me on the first page kept me reading page after page, anxious to come full circle back to the dying man on the first page.
What I liked most about the book was that the chaos and subsequent anarchy was told from so many different angles, each looking upon the same disaster with very different perspectives. This can be tricky for some writers, as it is easy to get bogged down in repetition. This is not the case with Pandora’s Pitbull.
Overall, the book was entertaining, well written, and full of action. The characters were very realistic. I think that any writer that can create characters you root for and others you sincerely hope meets a violent demise has done an excellent job in the storytelling department. Reader beware, the book does have some gruesome scenes of violence and gore that I found enjoyable, if not frightening. I would think that anyone going into such a novel would know that from the start, but if you don’t know, now you do. 😉
What didn’t I like about the book? Hmmm. Nothing of consequence really. The only thing that was a thorn in my side was some of the UK specific slang terms. I’m not knocking any UK writer for the use of slang, it was an opportunity for me to learn something I didn’t know.
Are you a fan of apocalyptic, end of the world type of fiction? This book is for you. Not a fan of the genre? Read it anyway, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Oh yeah, so, what’s the story with the man on the first page? Did he make it? Who was he? You’re going to have to find out for yourself! LOL

Help!

It would be great if you could leave a review for In Many Ways, Pandora’s Pitbull or Stark Contrasts at AskDavid.com