Ragged Man by Jack Priest Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Ragged Man
Book Review: Evil Lurks Inside!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Fast paced, but not original thriller. Ancient spirits jump from body to body--and from dog to cat as well. Seen it before? Don't sweat it. Characters might not be around long enough to worry about them. Lots of bloody good chills. Excellent choice for a beach read or late night knuckle wrencher. Throws in a couple of sex scenes for good measure. Should make a better than average movie. Book doesn't take itself too seriously--ending is pretty good as horror books go. Would make a good read around Halloween.Book Review: Exciting Characters, Exciting Story
Summary: 5 Stars
The story opens in Australia, where Rick Gordon and his wife Ann are participating in a race car rally across the Australia desert. During the race their car breaks down and they encounter a pair of dying Aborigines, who they bury. Unknown to them this kind act will unleash a deadly force that will follow them back to the small Northern California Town where they live.
J.P. Donovan is a young child who lives next door to the Gordons. Shortly after Rick and Ann get back from Australia he is on the beach with a gunny sack full of homing pigeons. This is the first time the child has let the birds fly on their own and he is wondering if they will come home. After he lets the last one go, he spies a crusty homeless man down the beach with a long knife. The man is stalking his mother. He screams, but she can't hear. She appears to be frozen in fright.
Then he sees Rick and Ann in their Jeep. He shouts, get's Rick's attention and now it's a race, Rick speeding over the beach sand, the man with the knife racing toward J.P.'s mother. Rick wins, killing the knifeman with his jeep, but that's not the first person Rick is going to have to kill in this super supernatural story that held me captivated. This is my second Jack Priest book, I read GECKO a couple weeks ago, and for sure I'm going on to NIGHT WITCH next.
I really dug the setup in this book, you know, the reason why the evil presence blends in with the bad guy's real reason for hating Rick Gordon. J.P. and his mother were excellent and the characters were exciting, as was the story.
Book Review: Exciting,Scary, Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had previously read two other Jack Priest books,"Night Witch", and
"Gecko".These were both quality books so I decided to read "Ragged Man".
This proved out to be a very good book as well.
The main character in this book is Rick Gordon.He and his wife Ann are participating in a cross country race in Australia.They get off the beaten path and their car breaks down.An old jeep drives up to where they are broke down.Riding in it are an old Aborigine man and woman.Rick takes
the old man's hand and the old man dies.The old woman dies immediately
thereafter,Rick and Ann bury the old couple in the desert.Afterwards they
meet the Ragged Man and his Ghost Dog around a campfire.They are saved by a good guy.They make it home safely.
Once in America their surrounding circle of friends begins dying.Rick's wife Ann also dies.Suspicions that Rick is behind the deaths begins to grow in law enforcement circles.The Ragged Man and Ghost Dog have also
joined Rick in America.Rick is in constant danger from Ragged Man and the Ghost Dog.Eventually Rick learns the ancient Australian legend and he
connects all of the happenings to the deaths of the old couple in the desert.
This is a very entertaining book.Once again Jack Priest has come up with a frightening villain.Read this one.
Book Review: Fast-Paced, Spine-Tingling Fun
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this book. It was well plotted, spine-tingling, fast-paced, with interesting characters I believed in with believable back stories and it was a whole lot of fun. I'm not the world's fastest reader, but I finished Ragged Man in two days time. I really liked it and if you're a fan of the horror genre, then I think you will too.Book Review: Good clean bloody fast-paced fun.
Summary: 4 Stars
Jack Priest, Ragged Man (Bootleg Books, 2003)
About a year ago, having been out of the "scene" for so long, I stuck my ear to the floorboards again and started listening around for the names of the hot new horror authors, the guys who weren't big enough yet to have been tabbed for a Leisure Books contract, but who were going places fast. I came up with five names, eventually. Adam Pepper. Monica J. O'Rourke. Carlton Mellick III. Mark McLaughlin. Jack Priest.
The first full-length I've read by any of the five (I've read lovely short stories from both McLaughlin and O'Rourke that have made me want more) is Jack Priest's debut novel, Ragged Man. While I'm not terribly sure I'd actually call it a horror novel-- more like a Michael Slade thriller combined with the movie Fallen-- I certainly liked it well enough to warrant reading more Jack Priest stuff.
Rick Gordon and his wife Ann, competing in an Australian off-road race, get lost in the dust and off the track, wrecking their car. While they're trying to decide what to do, an old man and his wife approach them with a very strange request, which they honor. That's when things start to go a little weird. "Weird" as in the people close to Rick and Ann start dying...
Ragged Man has two speeds: fast and breakneck. (In this, it reminded me a good deal of Doug Winter's fine novel Run, which I believe was the only other novel I've read in recent memory that has this runaway feel to it.) This works to its detriment slightly in the first few chapters, while we're still getting to know some of the characters (and while the action, if you haven't seen Fallen, will be slightly confusing), but things settle in right quick after about thirty pages, you've got a picture of what's going on, and it's time to sit back and enjoy the ride. The other main problem I had with the book can't be revealed without a major spoiler, but one of the turning points of the book happened a little too conveniently. (It does make sense, reflecting on the book as a whole afterwards, but I wish there had been just a bit more to link it to the events that helped it make sense, upon that reflection. And that, I must say, is a very convoluted sentence, and I apologize.)
Other than that, though, it's an adrenaline-fueled slasher novel with the punch of an action flick. Its goal is to roll over your head with all the subtlety of a steam hammer, and it succeeds admirably in its goal. If you're looking for a good, fast-paced thriller, you need look no further than Ragged Man. Recommended. *** ½