Customer Reviews

Gecko

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Priest has some real strengths as a writer. First, he writes sentences that keep moving forward; that may seem like a small thing, but it sure beats ploughing through the tortured hamstrung prose of someone like Dan Brown (though Priest is fond of comma-spliced run-ons).

Second, he has a fine sense of pace. This story gets moving instantly and keeps moving at a rapid clip. There isn't an ounce of padding in this book.

That's probably just as well, because some portions of the plot don't really connect the dots all that well. Timing is a bit mysterious, and some plot elements are instantly discarded once they've served their purpose (our hero's best friend is killed early on, but two minutes later, he's out of the story).

Some of this is entertainingly silly; our hero is a Vietnam vet, successful politician, well-trained sailor-- clearly he's 55 years old because he has to be that old to fit in all his backstory. Some of it borders on insulting; a twenty-year-old woman who was raped at sixteen decides that having sex with this fifty-five year old man whom she just met will make her whole again.

It's the breath-taking chase fiction of Ludlum with some creepy King supernatural, crossed with the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink of Rollins. This is not a book likely to create readerly deja vu (ex-POW with psychic link to Maori woman? yeah, I've so seen that before). Not deep, not serious, but well written and fast-paced enough to skate over its own thin ice.

Jim Monday, a retired Vietnam veteran, thought he was happily in love. He was wrong. His wife has left him for Bernd Kohler, a rather slippery German doctor; they're suing him for all the money and property in sight; and his best friend and lawyer has just been killed by a hit and run driver. Monday, convinced that the accident was a set-up intended to kill him, attacks Kohler and finds himself in jail for his trouble. When the murder attempts continue inside the jail, Monday knows he was right. He escapes calling on his long dormant but now instinctive Vietnam survival and killing skills.

In the opening paragraphs, Jack Priest shows himself to be a pretty darn capable spinner of that typical fast-paced police procedural or suspense thriller. But then Monday hears voices in his head. Somehow he's in communication with the spirit of Donna Tuhiwai, a young Maori woman who needs to be rescued from the same evil doctor who stole Monday's wife. As Monday searches for Donna and evades the ongoing police search, the killings continue and Priest begins to litter the landscape with a series of odd gecko sightings, brilliantly foreshadowing the really creepy stuff that has yet to happen. But, come it does, and "Gecko" makes the transition from suspense to horror.

"Gecko" is an ambitious horror novel and covers a lot of ground in a relatively small number of pages - pornography, murder, rogue police officers, white slave trade, mental telepathic communication, gruesome oversized lizards, Maori legends and more. Priest has certainly succeeded to the extent that he's produced a fast-paced enjoyable goose-bumper that will put a smile on the face of anyone who enjoys a good horror story but "Gecko" does have a couple of noticeable shortcomings. Unresolved loose threads at the end of the novel will leave the reader frustratingly puzzled about what happened to two major characters that simply disappear from the plot line with nary a trace. Monday's ability to move from one seemingly perfect romantic relationship into another without a shred of remorse or concern could most charitably be called unrealistic.

That said, "Gecko" was enjoyable and Jack Priest has made it onto the list of authors that I'll look for in the future. Recommended.

Paul Weiss

Another excellent tome by Jack Priest. When he sent me Ragged Man, Gecko and Night Witch I wasn't overjoyed. I expected to be sated on the genre before I finished the reading the first one (Ragged Man). Horror isn't my long suit, or so I thought.

Therefore, I was surprised to find myself a bit sorry when I finished Ragged Man. I immediately began Gecko and stayed up later than my usual pumpkin hour finishing it, enjoying every page.

Gecko is an imaginative, fast-paced combo of sinister supernatural beings, human crime and adventure. The characters are handled well, the monsters are entertaining and the plot is tightly woven. Jack Priest scored another home run with Gecko.

My suspicion is you'll buy another Jack Priest book if you read this one.

Jim Monday is well on his way to as bad a day as he has encountered since he got out of a Vietnamese prison camp but he just doesn't know it yet. The ex-congressman, who made millions in real estate, has accepted the inevitability of divorce from Julia, the twin sister of his original love Roma but now, fortuitously, he hears a second presence in his mind. Whatever, or whomever, it might be, the timely occurrence saves his life as the hit and run driver of a beat-up Buick Regal mows down his best friend and attorney, David, just as they were about to arrive at Julia's lawyer's office to finalize the divorce settlement.

Intuitively, Jim is certain Dr. Bernd Kohler, his soon-to-be ex-wife's love interest is behind it, and seeing him there on the street at that critical time is more than he can absorb, another reason to pound Kohler into the ground. Fortunately, for Kohler, the police intercede and Jim is hauled off to begin the process of accounting for his seemingly unwarranted attack. And so begins a duality of odysseys for Jim, a physical one that will tax every sinew of his 55 year old body as well as a metaphysical one, one that brings back memories of his solitary mental monopoly games of the Vietnamese jungles as well as his present attempts to understand why a second presence, a presence in peril, is sharing his mind.

Jack Priest has written a highly creative, fast- paced action thriller that may remind some readers of a James Patterson novel. In fact, one of the major characters, Hugh Washington is hauntingly reminiscent of Patterson's Alex Cross. But Priest has not authored a facsimile or homage. This story, while not totally enthralling, is quite original and the idea of the Gecko as the slithering threat to all that encounter it, is inspired. The story has its' moments, but in sum is not particularly scary or horrifying. I felt some scenarios required a suspension of disbelief that was difficult to achieve and in other instances characters central to the story displayed altruistic actions beyond the pale, crossing over into the realm of devices of convenient coincidence.

However, if you are searching for escapist fare with things that go bump into the night on nearly every other page, Gecko might very well be the insurance policy you needed.

Horror, just the way I like it. This was the first of Jack Priest's books I have read and I was not disappointed. I won't go into a narrative of what the book is about, as several others have already done that much better than I. But let me say the creature of the title is a frightening, relentless monster that leaves a very bloody, and uncompromising trail of bodies as it is unleashed upon the unsuspecting characters, who find themselves in a maelstrom of intense terror.

There is one particular element to this book which struck me as one of the most original ideas I have ever seen (or read). I won't spoil it for you except to say it concerns the "connection" between the main character Jim Monday and Donna.

Jack Priest is a fresh and imaginative voice in the world of horror literature and I will be reading his books for many years to come. I hope you will too.

Gecko is a great story. Without a doubt the first half is a 5 star read. The second half is less suspenseful, and I would give 4 stars for an average of 4 and a half. Jim Monday is a Vietnam vet who is used to killing. However, after the death of his best friend in what are mysterious circumstances, Jim begins to notice little green geckos everywhere. Jim knows there is some connection between these geckos and the strange German man who has stolen his wife from him. To compound the problem, Jim either has the conscious of a young Australian woman trapped in his brain, which he has a week to save before the murder of her physical body, or he is merely going insane. It is hard to tell which would be preferable.

The tension builds until Jim discovers that some of the geckos are not so little - and then the book gets really gory.

Another great read from Bootleg Press. Buy this book for a thrill.

Relic113

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.

Jack Priest, Gecko (Bootleg Press, 2003)

Jack Priest writes fun books. They're not great books-- this is genre fiction, not John Donne-- but they're fast-paced, thrilling, mile-a-minute thrillers that are, for the most part, easily the equal of anything you'll find on the bestseller list. (And, can we all sing it together now?, "better than Dan Brown!")

However, every now and then Priest tries to overstep his boundaries, and things falter. In two scenes in Gecko, Priest sets himself a task that, as I mull it over, is perhaps more difficult than any I can remember seeing in thriller fiction: he tries to write about a member of one sex experiencing sex from the perspective of a member of the other sex. Rough, I tell you. You can cut a guy a few points of slack for failing. And he does; both scenes read like romance-novel clich? catalogues. Priest is better when he's dishing out the action.

Rest assured, there's no shortage of action to be found here. Jim Monday, a Vietnam vet turned real estate millionaire, is on his way to a meeting with his lawyer and best friend when said lawyer and best friend is mowed down by a hit and run driver. Monday's soon-to-be-ex wife and her new boyfriend, a scary German doctor-type named Gernd Kohler, are across the street. Monday knows that Kohler was involved somehow in the hit-and-run, and attacks him. Monday is quickly jumped and arrested by police detectives Washington and Walker, but on their way back to the station, the car is shot at. Washington and Walker are starting to buy Monday's story that Kohler's behind it all, but the cops are still pretty sure that nothing at all is as it seems.

If you've already read a Jack Priest novel, you don't need me to tell you that the word that best describes them is "satisfying." If you haven't, you might be better served starting with Priest's first novel, Ragged Man, for there are a few scenes to be found here that you'll get an extra kick out of if you've already digested that one. (There's also a character common to the two novels who's a lot more fun in Gecko if you've already read Ragged Man.) But, one way or the other, if you like adrenaline, you're probably going to like this. ***

Via another request direct from the author, I was mailed a copy of Gecko by Jack Priest. As it was described as a horror story in the tradition of Dean Koontz, I was predisposed to like it already (yes, I'm a warped fan of Koontz's earlier novels). Gecko holds up well to that description, and I don't think I'll stop at this being the only Priest novel I'll read...

Jim Monday is walking along the street with his lawyer and friend David Askew. But as they start to cross the street, Askew is nailed by a hit-and-run driver. Monday is convinced he was the target when a doctor, Bernd Kohler, immediately shows up on the scene. Why? Because Kohler has stolen Monday's wife, will get half of his money in the divorce settlement, and likely wants the other half of a large life insurance policy on Monday as well. He physically assaults the doctor, and is restrained by a couple of cops. But something in Monday's story gets the cops thinking that Monday might just be right about the attempt on his life, and they start digging around privately on the side. Turns out there's far more sinister elements at play in the doctor's life, and everyone close to Monday and the investigation ends up confronting a nasty gecko-like monster that hunts humans for food. Monday has to dodge all the other cops who think he's a serial killer based on the mayhem left behind by the gecko creature, while trying to rescue his wife and save the daughter of the cop who's trying to help him. Oh, and there's that matter of the voice in his head belonging to a woman in New Zealand who is also being held captive and needs Monday's help to escape...

Priest's style most definitely reminds me of the early Dean Koontz books. Plenty of graphic gore playing out on a supernatural stage. I'll admit that on the first read of the novel, I missed the pages that explained the voice in the head. Perhaps that was when the Ambien was taking effect that night. My gripe was that we really needed to know more about the reason for the voice earlier in the story. But as I write this review, I went back into the book to get a name and found the four pages I missed at first. Having read that, things fall into place much more readily now. As such, I have to say it was a very well done horror novel (if that's a genre you like), and I will be checking out a few other Priest titles when time permits...

The protagonist of Jack Priest's thriller Gecko is fifty-five-year-old Jim Monday--a real estate developer and former congressman and a decorated Vietnam veteran who finds that, even after decades without practice, killing comes easy. Which is good, because Monday has a number of problems to deal with in Priest's story, not least of which is that he's being stalked by a giant, noisome, man-eating gecko. A bunch of humans are trying to kill him too, and he's hearing voices in his head, and, to top it off, his wife wants a divorce. But all of his difficulties turn out to be related to one another, so, in theory, the whole mess could be solved very tidily.... Not that it turns out that way.

While Monday is trying to solve his melange of problems and to save the life of the disembodied voice sounding in his head, he's helped by a number of other characters: the disembodied voice itself, his wife's twin sister, a pair of policeman who stake their careers on Monday's innocence, and the daughter of one of the policemen. The policeman and his daughter, Hugh and Glenna Washington, in fact figure very prominently in the book, such that the story is arguably half creature feature and half rogue-cop procedural.

Priest's book is not keep-the-lights-on scary, but he does manage to make small moments suspenseful because, as he proves more than once, he's not averse to killing off major characters. So it's never safe to assume that any given character won't die--horribly, with great loss of blood--in any particular scene. The book certainly held my interest. Sure, one has to suspend one's disbelief about the whole giant gecko thing. I had no problem doing that, but I did find it hard to believe that Jim could rack up so many intense relationships with gorgeous women during the brief period covered by the book. I also think that the book's storyline could be tightened up. I wouldn't say that the fate of the Washingtons is a loose end, for example--we know more or less what happens to them--but they exit the story surprisingly early given how important they are to it, never to be heard from again. It is surprising in particular given that the daughter is one of those gorgeous women with whom our hero so quickly forms an intense bond. A number of small scenes could probably be excised from the book as well to make it a tighter read.

Despite these complaints, I enjoyed the book. It's a fast read, with a quite unusual premise.