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Summary: Good, solid serial killer thriller
Review: Toyer is a good, solid book written in an original screenplay style. Especially if you like provocative serial killer stories not too far removed from reality, check this one out.
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Summary: I found the characters unbelievable
Review: Although at first it feels like a page-turner and reads like one, it is one of those novels that when you are done, you wonder why you wasted the time and effort. I found most of the characters to be gullible, beyond-stupid, and just plain crazy. One of the main characters, Maude, seemingly an intelligent doctor, was so unbelievable that her role in the end would have been laughable had it not been so ridiculous. Please tell me women are not this stupid.
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Summary: A multi layered novel which is a great and thoughtful read d
Review: When Toyer was a play at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. some years ago, I found the subject and the writing one of the most intense evenings of my life. Now, at last, the book, and it offers the same experience for the reader. The story will grip you from the beginning until the end, followed by reflections on control and manipulation in many parts of this society. In the end, a thoughtful and disturbing observation of the reality of evil in our world. Bonus: Gardner McKay reads it aloud for Brilliance Audio.
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Summary: Toyer is an unforgettable, hair raising psycho thriller
Review: TOYER by Gardner McKay Clear your calendar, lock the doors, and fasten the seat belt in your reading chair, because Gardner McKay's brand new thriller, TOYER, will leave you wide-eyed and extremely sensitive to sudden noises. Reading McKay's depiction of a criminal sociopath matching wits with a forensic physiatrist feels like being caught in raging white water without oars. The roar of the ever approaching waterfall - the climax - increases with nearly unbearable intensity with each page. From whatever angle you consider this amazing first novel, McKay delivers. His settings are palpable, his characters three dimensional, and his timing exquisite. He draws you inside his story, inside the human psyche, and inside your own imagination. The virtual reality he creates in your head makes you forget you're reading, and sometimes, to breathe. If you like a grab-you-by-the-forelocks mystery written by a master story teller, you must experience TOYER. But don't forget to turn on the phone machine. And check the deadbolt.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Gardner McKay writes plays. This is what this material called a book truly is...a play. Short clipped sentences 453 pages long. By the middle of the book I couldn't wait for it to end.
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Summary: Toyer was very intense and orginal.
Review: I found Toyer to be very intense right from the beginging. The story takes off and does not stop until the very last page. Mr. McKay did his research. His involvement of his characters and content rival books writen By James Patterson. If you liked Kiss the Girls you will love this book.
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Summary: Wow. My first McKay - Not the Last!
Review: I have grown to be a great consumer of fiction since I discovered audio-books. This was my first McKay and I was a bit worried since he also was the "reader". However, because Dick Hill (the greatest reader in general) produced the book's presentation I took a chance. For anyone who has not read McKay DON'T miss this one!An adult thriller but so well written and so full of suspense. If you're like me hoping one day to have your book pblished, McKay is a standard that is hard to reach.
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Summary: The stunning success we've been waiting for...
Review: A wonderful book full of the twists and turns that spring from the brilliantly twisted and ever turning mind of the charismatic Gardner McKay...Cheers, Gardner!!
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Summary: A very classy brain clearing thriller
Review: Not a book is not for the faint of heart, 'Toyer' is both poetry and, (I think any way), deep satire all wrapped up in a relentless psycho/sexual tale that is going to scare your pants off. Be warned, this is old school, dark side stuff where no concessions are made to the current batch of thought police. Some women will be critical because most of the violence is visited upon female characters (although the heroes are female too and, except for Toyer himself, the men are pretty uniformly lightweight). Moreover, everyone is liable to face some squirmy questions about themselves by the time the book has run it's course. The poetry is mostly about Los Angeles with it's gutters full or oranges and furry tennis balls and so on, and is a very nice bonus you don't get with most books in the genre. You won't have to feel guilty about reading trashy thrillers with this one, it is exquisitely written. Anyway, not to worry about the poetry; nothing long or heavy, but resonating in it's cumulative effects. The man knows LA and he has got it down here. As to satire, someone said with really good satire you can't really tell if it is or not which I guess is true here. Well, maybe it's not satire. See what I mean? Anyway, as far as I can see our culture is so over the top now that real satire is virtually impossible. Take a walk down any street in America and tell me I'm wrong. As to the gruesome operative (no pun) facts of the story, as if their dramatic value were not enough, we are presented with the standard proposition that the enemy is really us, demanding and lapping up the gory details the way we do. And, the usual corrollary is trotted out too, that it's all the big manipulative institutions that are doing it to us. A drooling, uneducatated herd being driven by greedy, unscrupulous shepherds. Well, it's not an important part of the book and we are so used to it it's not really distracting. Besides, where would we be without these literary 'blankies' for security? As mentioned in other reviews, the serial "killer" here doesn't kill, he "maims"(...to say the least). He puts his victims into a hopless, deep coma forever. Healthy beautiful vegetables. It wasn't entirely clear to me whether any of the Toyer victims have any sense or understanding of what is going on around them, (maybe because no one knows), only that to outward appearances they are unreachable and insentient. If they are, if they do hear, if they do have their wits and can see the flies on the ceiling and so forth but can't communicate in any way, well, I guess that is my idea of real horror. 60 or 70 years of that would be a long stretch of bad road. I should say, before I give my wholehearted recommendation to this book for anyone who wants a first rate non-stop read and a good dose of adrenalin, that although I only knew vaguely that he was writing a book, I have known Gardner McKay for a number of years. He is quite a remarkable man of considerable accomplishments in a number of fields, and with this book I would have to say, if it wasn't already, his future is assured. I have heard his readings for Public Radio of his stories, and if he is doing his own narration for the audio version of the book, that ought to be a real treat too.
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Summary: This is a book you can't get out of your mind...years later.
Review: I read this book a few years ago. It was gripping from the start. It was so terrifying that I had to put it in a draw between reads. The author paints a perfectly frightening picture so clear that it is still haunts me. I gave the book to a friend to read. She too had the same reaction. We both get shivers talking about this one two years later! I can't help but wonder why "Toyer" wasn't turned into a movie. This is fear Factor. Don't read this one on a dark and stormy night...alone!
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