Gecko

Rating:
Summary: Who told this guy he could write?!
Review: Now I've read my fair share of bad books...I was deployed for over a year, so there was plenty of time to read trashy romance novels and other bad literature. But this guy takes the cake! I bought this book, as well as Ragged Man, based on the reviews, and boy, was that a mistake. The people who have reviewed these must have been paid to say a few good words about it.

Basically, the plot of this book goes: There is a man, and he gets wrapped up in this loosely drawn plot of "evil monsters" and kidnapped women. There's a lot of old-man-gets-it-on-with-young-girl, a lot of randomly placed character links, and a wretched storyline.

If you visit a 8th grade English class, I'm sure that you could find similarly written essays and "novels". I'm sure you'll discard my review given that I'm the only one who seems to have something negative to say, but believe me, if you buy this guy's books, you'll regret wasting the money.

The two that I bought have balanced out my wobbly kitchen table really well, though!

Rating:
Summary: Giant Gecko, Very Big, Very Bad
Review: Southern Californian real estate developer Jim Monday is a man with a woman in his head and a monster on his trail in this horror thriller that had me reading the night away. Young Donna Tuhiwai, held captive in New Zealand, leaves her body and her mind settles half a world away in Monday's head. She sees a speeding car, shouts "Jump Back." Monday hears the words in his mind, jumps back and watches in horror as his best friend is killed by a speeding Buick.

Later she makes herself known to Monday, explains to him she is trapped in his body, tells him that she has been abducted and she needs him to go to her rescue. But Monday has problems of his own. His wife has been seduced by the man who Monday believes killed his friend and he believes she too, may be being held against her will. He is determined to rescue her, then he'll tend to Donna's rescue. However there is an ancient horror in the form of a Gecko beast, a mythical monster from Maori folklore, that wants to keep jim from saving his wife and it's just as determined as Jim and it's big, mean and almost impossible to kill.

I must say I really liked this book and like I did with RAGGED MAN and NIGHT WITCH, Mr. Priest's other two horror stories, I went right to Google as soon as I finished and did a search for the Gecko or the ngarara beast that the author has chasing around after the Jim Monday in this, his second horror story. As I mentioned elsewhere, I like my monsters, vampires, werewolves and such, to be drawn as accurately as possible from the folklore and legends from wench they came. In RAGGED MAN Mr. Priest used a little too much literary license for my taste. In NIGHT WITCH he was right on. So I was curious to see how he fared here.

I got a lot of hits when I typed in the words Maori and Gecko, but they were mostly tattoo sites and the like. I tried ngarara, got a zillion hits that were no help other that I figured out that ngarara can mean either gecko, monster or maybe monster gecko, so again I e-mail Mr. Priest and asked him what gives. He got right back to me and told me that the inspiration for the bad gecko beast thing came from a story written by Mohi Ruatapu in 1876. He then directed me to several websites, but unfortunately for me, they were all in Maori, Mr. Priest's little joke on me I think. Anyway, he got me and I can only assume that he's telling the truth, so no stars taken away for cheating on the folklore for GECKO. He gets all five for this one.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Rating:
Summary: Original, but....
Review: This guy is not a very good writer.
I liked many of the ideas and original story line, but the somewhat amateurish prose was disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Grabber of a Story
Review: This story sucks you right in on the first page when the book's protagonist, Jim Monday, has his mind invaded by a woman who is being tormented a half a world away. He hears her voice in his head as he's about to cross a busy street. She says "Jump back." Monday obeys without thinking, however his best friend is killed in the crosswalk by a driver who runs a red light.

The killing by car takes place outside Monday's wife's attorney's office. Monday had been on his way to see what she wanted in the divorce settlement. She had been swept off her feet by an evil German doctor named Bernd Kohler. Monday is wealthy and Kohler is after his money. With his wife he gets half, but with Monday dead, he gets it all. However that strange voice had saved Monday's life.

From there the book leads us on a thrilling chase. Monday is arrested for attacking the evil doc. The doc sends hired killers to finish him off in the jail. The voice saves him again. He breaks out and now he's mad as all heck.

Meanwhile the doc has taken his wife up to his Northern California mansion and has sent the legendary gecko beast of Maori folklore after Monday. As Monday closes in on Kohler, the beast closes in on Monday. And even as Monday is caught between them, he has to deal with the voice and what it represents.

My dear and somewhat elderly Aunt Pammy bought me all three Jack Priest books for my birthday and after reading "Gecko" I'm glad she did. I found it to be a fast-paced, quick read. A book readers of Dean Koontz and John Saul are sure to enjoy. I know, because they are my favorite writers, but now I guess I'll be adding Jack Priest to that category.

Reviewed by Devon Adams, the Cool Kid