The Punished [Kindle Edition]

Peter Meredith (Author)

Book Description

12-year-old Curt Regis lives the carefree life of a beggar and a thief. Homeless since the age of six, he uses his guile and street smarts, as well as a glib, smooth lying tongue to reign as king of the street rats. So when he is caught breaking into a school and is sent back into foster care for the ninth time, he is quite confident that it will be a short stay. He is secure in the knowledge that he will be gone again in a day or two with a new set of clothes on his back and his bag filled with silverware, jewelry and maybe if he is really lucky, a Play station to pawn.

However, this time his luck has run out. Curt is sent to what many in the foster-care system consider the perfect home. It is a home from which no one has ever runaway from. A beautiful home where not a word of complaint is ever heard, where in fact very few words are ever spoken and where the only real sounds that disturbs the stagnant air are the screams of the punished.

What the readers say about, The Punished:

"Peter Meredith is an outstanding storyteller. I've read everything he's written and have nothing but great things to say..."

"Meredith truly captures the horror of being trapped in an insane house..."

"The book is heart-breaking in a painful good way..."

Product Details

• File Size: 520 KB
• Print Length: 375 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005T5J5AW
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #469,477 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars awesome book! November 3, 2011

By vp

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Peter Meredith is an outstanding storyteller. I've read everything he's written and have nothing but great things to say. He's just starting out now but give him a chance you won't be disappointed. He doesn't just scare, he takes the time to build his characters and allow the reader to sympathize with them. This story is more than just your average horror; it takes a building of tension to really pack in the fright. Excellent story I look forward to reading more as he writes!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read May 28, 2012

By Paul A. Barron

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

What impressed me most about this book was the way the author managed to maintain the suspense throughout particularly as there was really only one location and relatively few characters.

The tense psychological element of the story never let up and we really got into the head of Curt.

What worked was the way the characters were not good or bad but all shades of grey in between.

The interactions and personalities of the children worked well I thought of Lord of the Flies but I don't think this is a satisfactory comparision.

On reflection this story is more akin to Stephen King or James Herbert.

I just realised this is 140 000 words so credit to the author as it didn't feel like it.

All in all a great read and to use the cliche I did find it difficult to put down.

Paul A.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost perfect.... February 23, 2012

By K. Weber

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

My first but not last book by this new author. I say almost perfect giving it four stars instead of five because the ending left me wanting more. I felt that the author ended it abruptly and would have liked to have known what happened to Curt, Amber and Beth "Mouse". At least a blurb before Curt's final act concluding the book. Otherwise I enjoyed the story, the creepiness and it had some great suspense. I would recommend it to other readers.

More About the Author

Unlike almost every other author I run into, I wasn't reading at the age of two and writing my first poem by my third birthday. Quite the opposite, I hated to write. I never learned to type and my penmanship hasn't progressed beyond a second grade level. Since I would fret over every little error, an e-mail used to take me close on an hour to write if the client was important enough.

But that all changed last year at about this time. With the economy in the dumps, my company decided to rework our website and in order to attract attention to it, I was told I should write articles and submit them online. So I painstakingly wrote five articles. They were terrible.

Not terribly written, just dull. Writing about the technical aspects of LED lights is super boring and not just to me but for everyone. So with Halloween coming up, I decided to write about the two super-natural occurrences that I had been involved with instead. The boss wasn't exactly happy, but seeing as she's my wife, what could she do?

After that, I wrote a book. I said to myself, hey you wrote a five thousand word short story, why not write a book? How hard could it be? When it was done, I said, why not make it a trilogy? How hard could it be?