A fighting dog, a deadly virus, and a country in meltdown.
Professor David Caruthers-Bryce thought he was very clever. He was; just not clever enough. His top secret experiment has gone horribly wrong and now everyone will pay a heavy price.
A virus, like nothing that has gone before, begins to spread unchecked. As society implodes and people refuse to die a normal death, the fates of a small boy, a young woman, a soldier and the very country that they live in will hang in the balance.
Kill or cure? Hope or despair? Escape or succumb? The problem is…who can they turn to when there’s no-one left to trust?
A whole new evil has been unleashed on the world and it might just be too late to put the lid back on this particular box…
Professional Reviews
Indie Book of the Month august 2012
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
Goldie's daughter Chili Pepper leaves the Flirting With Food TV show & moves to Portland Oregon as Executive Chef at a new restaurant. But there is a rash of murders, all in the Pettygrove mansion where she lives with roommates.
Set in 2022, new novel features a successful Baltimore attorney who attempts a run at the state senatorial seat. But she is suddenly faced with obstacles she didn’t know existed and decisions she never dreamed she would have to make…
