Gecko

Jack Priest

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.