Night Witch

This book starts out with a bang. John Coffee (spelled differently than Stephen King's great character) is on a northern California beach. He sees two men about to attack a woman jogger. He interferes, saves the woman just as something else attacks and Coffee barely gets away with his life, the beach attackers do not survive. Coffee, a small time thief, broke into a house when he was on vacation in Trinidad and he stole a locket. He saw no value in the trinket, but thought it might make a good present for his daughter Carolina. Unknown to him, the locket is the key to a Soucouyant's immortality. In fact he didn't even know the Soucouyant's are shapechanging, Vampire like creatures, who live on blood and fear. This shapechanger has followed Coffee home to California. She wants her locket back and she will stop at nothing to get it. Carolina lives with her mother, as her parents are divorced. Coffee tries his best to protect his daughter, but his frequent battles with the beast weaken him. Carolina is on her own, well not entirely, she has her school friend Arty, an overweight kid who is frequently the target of both his father's and a school bully's abuse. I really liked the children in this story. I felt I was with them every step of the way as the Soucouyant creature closed in on them. I particularly liked the way Arty grew from a sad little boy who was afraid of the school bully to a tough kid who stood up to not only the bully, but his father and eventually the Soucouyant. I liked that the good kids triumph and I really like what happened to Arty's father, that alone is worth the price of the book. There is good reading here.

Night Witch was a slick, cool and a really fast read, as I could have read hundred more pages. Jack Priest writes like he knows everything, as he is well accurate and prolific in his descriptions, nothing is staged and unbelievable and the story is as far out as it gets! This tale of fantasy married with horror is very enjoyable as we trek with John Coffee, an unusual character with a passion for stealing things large and small, who is smart, funny and someone you either want to be best friends with or just want to be him. He gets into a large fiery mess, stealing a locket that gets him in more trouble that he ever bargained for, as the thing he stole it form is beyond life and death and will stalk him until it either rests in its grave or kills him and gets it back. The characters in this book are both smart and fast, but they are human and they make mistakes, they are not perfect yet it makes them more real than most people I run into every day. I loved the character development and the conversations, I felt like the writer picked my brain and typed it all over his pages. The story is split in two views, something I love in books. I get hooked on one and then the other and in the end I get to enjoy them coming together in a turbulent and mouth watering ending. John is on the run from a mysterious creature that can appear as anything, but it chooses predatory and nasty forms of dangerous animals with the dead give away of its red eyes that sear though many in the book, sending chills and cries from its victims. I loved the fight sequences as there were many and the combat one on one with John and the creature was superb. I felt chills on my spine reading about a wolf in the dark forest in the fog, with it's claws ticking on the rocks, its snout dripping with hunger and I felt as if I was in the story and tried not to overstep the safety zone from which I was watching. The second story line deals with a pair of eleven year olds, Carolina and Arty, who were marvelously written, as it is rare that I enjoy youngsters in books, the only other author who really captured them well was Dan Simmons but for a new writer such as Jack, his children were breathtaking. They were kids, with their tender minds, and brave souls who became friends and fought obstacles greater then the sum of them put together and I loved reading their adventures and their dangerous escapes from the Night Witch. They had personal problems to deal with, gut wrenching child abuse and bullies at school, while trying to survive a killer that grown men fought and lost their lives to. I wouldn't dare to spoil the ending but it was great! I love when the climax is even greater then the story told, for all the buildup you read really brings you ultimate satisfaction and makes the whole experience of cracking open a book such a rewarding one. I cant wait for more books from this author, as his is slick as a silver bullet in the night and he really doesn't miss with his stories.

I recently discovered Jack Priest's books and was immediately intrigued by the originality of his work. He draws his material from the legends and lore of places such as the Caribbean Islands, and areas of the South Pacific I would assume he has traveled to many-a-time. As unique a source of material as this can be, he is also a great writer. I have so far read Night Witch and Gecko, both of which are captivating novels that are impossible to put down. But I think Night Witch is probably my favorite. I have to agree with another reviewer who commented that one of the strong points of this book is that it is told from the perspective of children. This can be extremely tough to pull off, as children in literature and film (Jurassic Park leaps to mind), tend to be unrealistically mature for their age, not to mention whitty and all too often smarmy and annoying. Jack's characters here are engaging and written well within their age, yet their heroism is not forced, nor unbelievable. I found the character of Artie especially likable and was only disappointed when the story had to end. I would liked to have seen more of what becomes of these characters. Great horror, great book.

Carolina is on her way to school when an old woman peers out at her from behind her curtains. Arty, the fat kid of the class, meets her and carries her books. Bullies push Arty around, Carolina tries to defend him. The bullies promise to deal with Carolina and Arty after school. Such is the stuff of children in junior high school, but young Carolina and Arty have much bigger problems on their hands than a handful of bullies. That old woman for example. She is a soucouyant, loosely related to the vampire. A bloodsucking shape-changer that hunts and kills in the Southern Caribbean. She wears a locket which allows her to live forever. Unknown to Carolina, when her father, a petty thief, was in Trinidad on vacation, he stole the locket on a routine burglary, because he thought it would make a good gift for her.Very bad things are about to happen in the small Northern Californian town of Palma. People are going to die as the soucouyant vents her ancient wrath. However there is a secret to her destruction, not a stake in the heart, something more chilling, and our young friends are going to have to find what it is pretty darned quick, because they are on the evil old witch's list and the Night Witch is certainly not someone or something to be trifled with.Mr. Priest has delivered a chilling, sometimes violent, sometimes uplifting, horror story that will have you on the edge of your seat. A super, bad, vampire-like, evil old witch of a character that will have your heart racing to a voodoo beat as you eagerly read though the pages to see what comes next. I couldn't put it down. You won't be able to either.

This book was one of three sent to me by Jack Priest with the request that I read and review them all: Gecko, Ragged Man and Night Witch. I enjoyed reading all three, but I considered Night Witch the best in plot, character development and pure imagination.Supernatural creatures of the Jack Priest universe aren't contained by the fences of traditional boundaries. They slip through and explode into new and unexpected avenues of the mind, the dark closet and the sounds just outside the bedroom window. Priest combines human thriller-drama with hand grenades of outrageous (but almost believable) nightmare creatures in a way that will keep you reading until you finish (even if you have to get up early in the morning and really need to put this down and get some shuteye). Night Witch is Priest's best to date. Read it.