Pit Fighter - Bare Knuckles, Blood and Bone

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure what to expect from a crime thriller narrated by a Virtual Voice. Would it feel robotic? Surprisingly, no—the flat, almost affectless delivery becomes a strength here. It’s like listening to a fighter’s internal monologue mid-bout, where emotion is a luxury and every word is measured for survival. The narration’s lack of theatrical flair mirrors the book’s own starkness, though I’ll admit it took me a chapter to adjust to the cadence. Once I did, though, the pairing made sense: this isn’t a story that needs a gravelly noir voice. It’s too raw for that. Armstrong’s writing shines in the fight scenes, which are visceral without being gratuitous. The first bout—where the protagonist’s ribs crack like kindling—had me wincing, but it’s the *aftermath* that lingers: the way victory feels hollow, how the crowd’s roar fades into the hum of a fluorescent light in a dingy motel room. My only critique? The secondary characters sometimes blur together, their dialogue lacking the same sharp specificity as the fights. And while the pacing is relentless, the ending feels abrupt, like the bell ringing before the final round lands its knockout. Still, for fans of crime fiction that trades twists for tension and style for substance, *Pit Fighter* delivers a knockout in under two hours. Just don’t expect to walk away unscathed.