First published back in June of 2012, British author Matt Shaw’s novella ‘All Good Things’ formed the ninth and final instalment within his ‘Peter Chronicles’ series.

The novella was later re-released within the ‘His Name Was Peter’ (2017) complete collection, which compiled all the ‘Peter chronicles’ stories – apart from the short story ‘Before Vanessa’ (2019) – into one complete volume.

DLS Synopsis:
Peter Jenkins decided he wasn’t cut out for love.  He’d come to terms with the fact he’ll never find love and it would never find him.  So instead, he’d embrace his true nature.  From now on he’d fill his time more constructively.

He’d still seek out women on the internet.  Women like Angela.  But instead of searching for love, his intentions were now quite different.  He’d find these women and stop them from hurting men like him.  Stop them from preying on those who were hoping for someone to love.  Stop these rinsers for ruining more men’s lives.  Through his actions he hoped others might finally stand a chance of finding their true love instead of just being used.

Which is how Peter found Jade.  On the internet she hustled men for their money.  Played off their affections.  Played off their desperation.  At night she was a stripper at a nearby club.  She oozed sleaze and looked like a cheap tart.  Except she wasn’t a tart, nor was she cheap.  The dances she did were expensive and the gifts she tricked men into buying her didn’t come cheap.  She was everything Peter had come to loath in women.

Although now Peter had given up on searching for a companion, the empty void left Peter feeling lonely.  So, whenever Peter felt the need for company, he’d go out to the industrial estate where the hookers congregated, and he’d pull one away from their fucked-up lives, just for one night.  A night away from the misery of their chosen profession.  A night off.  And he’d show them not all men are evil.  Not all men wanted to take advantage of them.  And then he’d send them on their way.  Maybe in his own way he was saving these women.

Which is how Peter met Emma.  And in Emma, he began to see something else.  Something he’d given up on.  Someone who could finally offer him his happy ever after…

DLS Review:
Here we have the final instalment.  The last book in the Peter Chronicles series.  If like me you’ve read them all in chronological order, one after the next, then you’ll feel you’ve come a long journey to get here.  Most importantly, you’ll feel you know the character of Peter Jenkins incredibly intimately.

This final book sees a defining point in Peter.  Throughout the previous books he’s been nothing short of a monster.  A psychotic sociopath who will do whatever it takes to find love.  Well…force his idea of love, rather than actually find it.  However, here we witness a monumental turning point.  Okay, so the guy’s still damn screwed in the head.  However, there’s something else under the darkness.  Something breaking the surface.  Dare I say a hint of fucking honest-to-god wholesome goodness to him.

Shaw has spent a long time painting the picture of a very human monster.  One who has his own perverse reasoning to justify his despicable actions…to take away some of the evil from behind his eyes.  Here the depth of the humanity within Peter Jenkins becomes the prime factor in the story.  Fucking hell, it’s verging on being a frigging love story rather than a fucked-up serial killer thriller.

To get here you’ve undoubtedly come so far with the story of Peter.  Vested so damn much into the character.  To see these beautifully human qualities now forming, is incredible.  How Shaw has somehow managed to fuck with you so damn much that a piece of your heart actually goes out to this guy.  The guy who’s abducted, raped and murdered so many women.  Just two books ago you’d never have expected you’d be feeling a sense of happiness at Peter finally finding something verging on actual love.  Something he’d pretty much given up on.

They say love finds you when you stop looking.  Well, that old adage has been amplified and distorted to monumental proportions here.  It feels like everything is finally coming together.  That there’s some sort of human hope in every dark soul.  To have achieved this with Peter is incredible.

Oh but of course there’s still plenty of messed up horror nestled within the tale.  Some truly gut-churning violence that explodes out of the page when the shit eventually hits the fan.  Furthermore, the twists Shaw throws in are just incredible.  Another prime example of how to absolutely nail some completely unpredictable twists from hell.

To be fair, the entire Peter Chronicles series has been absolutely superb.  Which instalment has been the best?  Honestly, it’s a tough one to call.  Especially as each offering feeds off the previous ones, as they really should.  The end result is that we’ve a lot of built up characterisation and history by the time we’ve come to this ninth book.  Nevertheless, what Shaw achieves in this final instalment is absolutely breath-taking.  Not for one second do you feel tired of the plot, the narrative or of Peter.  You’ve seen him gradually evolve to become this complex man dealing with such colossal inner turmoil.  There’s an emotional battleground being fought in his head, and you’re standing there in the thick of it all.

This is just such a good book to finish the series with.  A near-perfect finale, bringing everything full circle in the end.  Beautifully fitting.  I cannot recommend this book, or indeed the entire series, enough.  Just fucking superb reading.

The novella runs for a total of 117 pages.

© DLS Reviews

Other ‘Peter Chronicles’ instalments:





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