Product Description

Rick and Ann Gordon were well off the beaten track, in the middle of the great Australian desert, when an ancient jeep lumber toward them. It pulled alongside and an old Aborigine got out, leaving an old woman in the car. Rick took the man's hand as he slumped down. Dead. The woman smiled, then died too. They buried the old couple, drove back to civilization, then flew home to California, all the while keeping the secret of what had happened out in the desert. Soon after people around Rick start dying. First strangers, then Ann, then friends. And somebody has made it look like Rick is a murderer. To save himself and a child he loves, he has to find the real killer before the police find him, but there is something after Rick. Something connected with the death of two old Aborigines. Something from the Dreamtime. Something bad.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325436 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11
• Released on: 2005-09-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 340 pages

From the Publisher
Jack Priest’s debut novel, RAGGED MAN, has something for everybody. Horror, thrills, suspense, the triumph of good over evil and even a little romance. Well, no mystery, it’s pretty obvious, right from the get go, who and what we’re dealing with. Our erstwhile heros don’t know however, but the reader does as she wanders around in the head of confused Sam Storm, failed private investigator as he is taken over by an evil, killing thing that turns him into the Ragged Man.

Mr. Priest’s friends call him the Dark Priest of Horror and we call him that on the cover of the book. We do that because he’s got sort of a dark way of looking at things. He could just as easily be called the Dark Priest of the Caribbean Sailing community if he didn’t write. He’s the guy that tells the ghost story around the campfire on a dark and quiet night and after listening to him for a few minutes, that quiet night turns real spooky.

Give RAGGED MAN a read. We think you’ll like it. We think you’ll be back for more.

Sincerely,

Bootleg Press

From the Inside Flap
Rick and Ann Gordon were well off the beaten track, in the middle of the great Australian desert, when an ancient jeep lumber toward them. It pulled alongside and an old Aborigine got out, leaving an old woman in the car.

Rick took the man’s hand as he slumped down. Dead. The woman smiled, then died too. They buried the old couple, drove back to civilization, then flew home to California, all the while keeping the secret of what had happened out in the desert.

Soon after people around Rick start dying. First strangers, then Ann, then friends. And somebody has made it look like Rick is a murderer. To save himself and a child he loves, he has to find the real killer before the police find him, but there is something after Rick.

Something connected with the death of two old Aborigines.

Something from the Dreamtime.

Something bad.

About the Author
They couldn’t find anyone to write my Bio here, so they asked me, so I guess this bio is really a sort of autobio, maybe not even that, but it’s about me anyway.

My Name is Jack Priest and I write horror stories. You know, the kind of something-is-under-the-bed-and-it’s-a-gonna-getcha kind of story. I’m a rabid Dylan fan, but I play the Stones, Beatles and the Dead all the time too. And because I live about ten months of the year in the Caribbean on my sailboat, "Night Witch," I also play Jimmy Buffett. Believe it or not, you live on a sailboat, you play Jimmy Buffett. It’s like a rule, no not like a rule, it is a rule. I think they keel haul you if you don’t have his CDs on board, either that or they send someone up in a bosun’s chair to throw a line over the first spreader, then they hang you by the neck till dead. Good thing for me I’m a Parrot Head as well as Dead Head or I’d really be in trouble.

I used to be a singlehander, that means I sailed alone, though I’m not a loner. I joined a writer’s group in St. Martin and those guys, writers and sailors all, gave me the courage to get my stuff published. To date I’ve got three books out, all based on stories I’ve heard in my travels.

RAGGED MAN: One night out at Aires Rock this aborigine guy started talking about the Dreamtime, this is a story about something that followed an American couple home from Australia. Something from the Dreamtime. Something bad. GECKO: I picked up the idea for this one in New Zealand. The Gecko was born out of a Maori legend and it came to America mad as hell.

NIGHT WITCH: The Night Witch is a soucouyant, second Caribbean cousin to the Vampire. She wears a locket that lets her live forever. Little Carolina Coffee got a locket from her father, a sneak thief back from vacation in Trinidad. Now the Night Witch is in California because her locket has been stolen and she wants it back.

I named my boat after the Night Witch, two years before I wrote the book. She’s such a spooky character, a mix of voodoo and European folklore, very scary.

I’m in the States now for a couple months, working like a dog on my latest horror novel, THE VOYAGE OF JESSE NAZARETH. Basically Christ comes back in the body of a serial killer, but nobody believes him despite the miracles. They try him, find him guilty and it’s the gas chamber. I don’t know I might change the ending.

While sitting on a the deck of a friend’s boat in Santa Barbara, I met Sara Hackett, who I call Babe. She’s a sailor gal, she’s very sweet and I guess when I get back to the Caribbean, I won’t be singlehanding anymore.

Thanks for reading,

Jack Priest

Customer Reviews

I couldn't put it down
What a story! I've never read anything like this. It is my first "horror" novel and while I'm not sure it has convinced me to take up this genre, I must say it has made me a fan of the author. Jack Priest certainly knows how to weave a tale. It's clever, hip and, well, gory as can be--everything I've ever imagined a horror story to be and a bit more.

Set among a clan of bootleggers in the music industry, the tale initially unfolds through an adventure in Australia where the main characters, Rick and Ann Gordon, learn about Aboriginal lore of the Marangit (good) vs. the Galka (evil). Evil takes the form of the Ragged Man, a heartless killer intent on beheading everyone on a long list of bootleggers associated with Rick Gordon. The Ragged Man, also known as Sam Storm, has a saber-toothed familiar, a killing creature also known as the Ghost Dog. Between the two of them ravaging the bootlegger's world, the blood never stops spilling. Besides off-road racing in the Australian desert, there are further adventures on an airplane, bikes, a fishing boat, several cars and even a bathtub.

Late in the story there's a moment of remorse that emerges from Storm, when he realizes he has done "terrible things, foul unspeakable deeds, things against the laws of God and Man, things that violated his very nature." He goes on to admit that wrong as they were, he enjoyed doing them. I laughed, thinking such sentiment was similar to how I felt about reading this book. I enjoy a good mystery from time to time, can even stomach a romance, but I never thought I'd enjoy reading a story about a crazed killer. Obviously this is the result of a talented storyteller and I look forward to reading more of his work.

From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life," and "The Things I Wish I'd Said," McKenna Publishing Group

A globe-trotting genre jumper
When the author asked me to read and review three of his horror books I really didn't know what to expect. . I'd only read one book in the genre, one by Stephen What'sHisName. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Jack Priest books are fun, well-written, tightly plotted and entertaining.

Ragged Man begins in the Australian desert and bounces around the globe, finding metaphysical beasties, real-time music black-marketers and investigators gone postal. Priest does a great job of weaving his great-big-ugly-thingamajig into a volatile human setting. There's something here for everyone. Readers knowledgeable about metaphysical pursuits will find aspects of the plot and characters to be uncomfortably close to certain other realities, getting the juices flowing in ways they didn't anticipate. Young readers will enjoy the book for the adrenalin rushes.

I don't believe you'll regret buying this book, even if you think you don't like horror genre.

Good clean bloody fast-paced fun.
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