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Shikar
Shikar marks the spectacular debut of Jack Warner. Totally absorbing, it is a thriller of verve, accomplishment, tension, and imaginative power. This is the kind of story that keeps us awake and reading into the early morning hours, makes us miss our stop, forces us to be late for appointments.
Shikar pits Grady Brickhouse, sheriff of Harte County, Georgia, against an unlikely but fearsome opponent-a full-grown Bengal tiger that has somehow found its way into his jurisdiction. Brickhouse happens to be very good at his keeping the peace in his sleepy corner of the huge forested wilderness at the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. A former high-school principal, Brickhouse is known as a gentle and fair man, people like him. But he's no match for the tiger, one of the most powerful and cunning predators on the planet-few humans are, and every hunter who goes into the woods after the beast is taken out in pieces. Grady is going to have to find someone or something that can do something damn quick-the death toll mounts every day, the media and the politicians are clamoring for something to be done . . . and something strange is going on that Grady just can't put his finger on, something that doesn't add up. . . .
Shikar is fresh and inventive. Jack Warner performs storytelling magic in the clear, resonant style of the classic adventures of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, and Michael Crichton.
It is a novel you will never forget.
Shikar pits Grady Brickhouse, sheriff of Harte County, Georgia, against an unlikely but fearsome opponent-a full-grown Bengal tiger that has somehow found its way into his jurisdiction. Brickhouse happens to be very good at his keeping the peace in his sleepy corner of the huge forested wilderness at the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. A former high-school principal, Brickhouse is known as a gentle and fair man, people like him. But he's no match for the tiger, one of the most powerful and cunning predators on the planet-few humans are, and every hunter who goes into the woods after the beast is taken out in pieces. Grady is going to have to find someone or something that can do something damn quick-the death toll mounts every day, the media and the politicians are clamoring for something to be done . . . and something strange is going on that Grady just can't put his finger on, something that doesn't add up. . . .
Shikar is fresh and inventive. Jack Warner performs storytelling magic in the clear, resonant style of the classic adventures of Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, and Michael Crichton.
It is a novel you will never forget.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 3, 2015
There is a colleague of mine who hails from a town that borders a mountain range and forests. It’s a scenic place and one that lies close to a wildlife sanctuary. He had once told me an anecdote of a bear which was found abandoned by the wayside bordering the forest. It appears that this bear ( a fully grown one) was a part of an illegal travelling circus and owing to increasing pressure from the authorities, was let off in the jungle. The animal had been raised in captivity and slowly found its way back to civilization. It did not know how to hunt or forage and it simply say by the way side on a boulder. Initially people were scared of the animal and gave it a wide berth but slowly curiosity overcame the fear and they began feeding it tidbits but this however made the bear all the more reliant on human beings. Time went by and the curiosity dried up, people walked away and the bear sat there waiting for food that never came. One morning found the poor animal lying dead near the boulder and there was nothing more to that story. This little tale is not a novel one for this is what usually happens to animals who escape captivity. The lucky ones die painless deaths while gruesome ends await others who cross paths with human beings.
This brings up a hypothetical question : If a supremely adapted predator was let loose among an isolated community who would emerge as the winner of the conflict ? There is no concrete answer to this question for every weapon that we bring to the fore, the animal has a finely honed predatory instinct which would counter our moves. Jack Warner tells a story of man against nature in the town of Hartesville bordering the Appalachian mountains in ‘Shikar’.
A fully grown Bengal Tiger and a man-eater at that gets loose from a travelling circus and escapes into the wilderness of the mountains. Natural prey being scarce, it starts picking off people from the sleepy town of Hartesville. The story follows the town’s struggle to reclaim their peace and to hunt down the animal wreaking havoc in their lives. The story is pretty much what you expect from a Hollywood creature feature : people who underestimate the power of nature, the predator and its unsuspecting victims, arrogant men and women who think this is a freak occurrence and pay for their ignorance with their lives and the genuine folks trying to bring down the animal. They are all in here. What makes the difference are two characters : Roy and Col. Jim Graham. Roy is a feral child and one who develops an inexplicable bond with the tiger. While it lends and ethereal feel to the whole relationship, the author does not explain in detail as to what bonds the two and why it brings about changes to the child. This factor notwithstanding, it is an unspoken and yet life changing bond between man and nature. Col. Graham is the hunter, a relic of the British Raj and one who respects the animal which he plans to kill. He is eponymous of the gentleman hunter class of Brits which was so popularized by an elderly gentleman named Col. Edward James Corbett (interestingly enough he does get mentioned as a character in this book). Graham is a quiet, elderly gentleman who is a polar opposite to all the gung-ho tiger killers in the community. He quietly goes about his job with brutal efficiency and gets things done. The story is a tad predictable but Jack Warner manages to hold it all together.
There was one little occurrence that made me exclaim out loud. An interaction between Graham and an Indian expat in the town which suddenly felt utterly out of place for this tale. It reflected rather poor judgement from the author to paint a clichéd picture of an Indian as a blabbering and tongue tied inferior entity in front of his white Sahib even decades after the country attaining independence. The most befitting remark that I can make is what the Britisher's character himself says as ”most embarrassing”.
This is an under rated and lesser known creature-feature. Leagues ahead of many others books in this genre. Recommended.
This brings up a hypothetical question : If a supremely adapted predator was let loose among an isolated community who would emerge as the winner of the conflict ? There is no concrete answer to this question for every weapon that we bring to the fore, the animal has a finely honed predatory instinct which would counter our moves. Jack Warner tells a story of man against nature in the town of Hartesville bordering the Appalachian mountains in ‘Shikar’.
A fully grown Bengal Tiger and a man-eater at that gets loose from a travelling circus and escapes into the wilderness of the mountains. Natural prey being scarce, it starts picking off people from the sleepy town of Hartesville. The story follows the town’s struggle to reclaim their peace and to hunt down the animal wreaking havoc in their lives. The story is pretty much what you expect from a Hollywood creature feature : people who underestimate the power of nature, the predator and its unsuspecting victims, arrogant men and women who think this is a freak occurrence and pay for their ignorance with their lives and the genuine folks trying to bring down the animal. They are all in here. What makes the difference are two characters : Roy and Col. Jim Graham. Roy is a feral child and one who develops an inexplicable bond with the tiger. While it lends and ethereal feel to the whole relationship, the author does not explain in detail as to what bonds the two and why it brings about changes to the child. This factor notwithstanding, it is an unspoken and yet life changing bond between man and nature. Col. Graham is the hunter, a relic of the British Raj and one who respects the animal which he plans to kill. He is eponymous of the gentleman hunter class of Brits which was so popularized by an elderly gentleman named Col. Edward James Corbett (interestingly enough he does get mentioned as a character in this book). Graham is a quiet, elderly gentleman who is a polar opposite to all the gung-ho tiger killers in the community. He quietly goes about his job with brutal efficiency and gets things done. The story is a tad predictable but Jack Warner manages to hold it all together.
There was one little occurrence that made me exclaim out loud. An interaction between Graham and an Indian expat in the town which suddenly felt utterly out of place for this tale. It reflected rather poor judgement from the author to paint a clichéd picture of an Indian as a blabbering and tongue tied inferior entity in front of his white Sahib even decades after the country attaining independence. The most befitting remark that I can make is what the Britisher's character himself says as ”most embarrassing”.
This is an under rated and lesser known creature-feature. Leagues ahead of many others books in this genre. Recommended.
October 18, 2010
My dad gave me this to read one Sunday when I was (the horror) w/out a book and the library was closed. It's not something I might have picked for myself, but my final assessment is "WOW!" Very suspenseful, very interesting, and a thought-provoking ending. The story itself is kind of like Jaws meets Rudyard Kipling -- it's about a "domesticated" circus tiger that escapes and begins eating the locals in rural Georgia (captured brilliantly in all its poverty, color, heat and characters). And yes, you can't help but root for the tiger. Rest assured that, unlike Jaws, this story is so much more than man vs. beast, and it really takes off when legendary tiger hunter Jim Graham arrives. Graham is a quiet, reserved gentleman who leaves retirement in England to slay the beast, but he is so intelligent, and so respectful of nature and animals, even as he hunts them, you cannot help but root for him as well. According to the author (a retired journalist), Graham was based on legendary tiger hunter Jim Corbett. The novel takes on an almost spiritual quality as you're drawn into a subplot about a young mountain boy being raised (if you can call it that) but a mentally handicapped mother. The kid is basically feral, but he's whip smart and knows the mountains and all its critters intimately. He feels a bond with the tiger (which may or may not be mutual) but joins forces with Graham to hunt the giant cat. I won't say any more about the ending, because it will make you blink rapidly, and why spoil it? :)
August 7, 2018
This book was captivating, enthralling, and edge of your seat exciting from the first page to the last and was peppered with some great humor that moved it right along. I loved it!
August 24, 2020
A fun book with a mildly improbable ending sequence. Hemingway, or even Elmore Leonard it is not, but still a nice murderous romp through rural Georgia.
December 22, 2025
This book is much better than I thought it was going to be. Shikar is a Jaws type story. A man-eating tiger is loose in the mountain of North Georgia. Of course, the local law enforcement and even the national guard have no idea how to handle this, so a retired tiger hunter from India is brought in to track and kill the tiger. But this hunter is also trying to understand and connect with the tiger. The story also has an element of magical realism between the tiger and a local boy.
Warner increases the tension by breaking up the narration between simultaneous events, reading about the hunter tracking the tiger to switch to the boy and his experience, switch to some unsuspecting potential victim. And the story rotates between these perspectives, continually interrupting to build tension. It sounds like it would be horrible, but Warner does it very well, almost movie scenes like.
This was a different and enjoyable read.
Warner increases the tension by breaking up the narration between simultaneous events, reading about the hunter tracking the tiger to switch to the boy and his experience, switch to some unsuspecting potential victim. And the story rotates between these perspectives, continually interrupting to build tension. It sounds like it would be horrible, but Warner does it very well, almost movie scenes like.
This was a different and enjoyable read.
February 3, 2016
This book took me by surprise. It is a nonstop thrill ride. It has become one of my all time favs!
May 20, 2022
Wow--I wish I could have written this novel! I read a lot of animals-attack books and this was crafted extremely well. This one is especially rare because there’s an actual apex predator loose on the land. (Usually such books are on the water with sharks, or if it’s on land it’s city-flattening kaiju, or thousands of tiny animals like rats, or mythical shifters like werewolves.)
Not that this book is without mysticism—there is some of that, and I normally don’t like that—but here it’s handled pretty deftly. It’s more about an uncanny hunting prowess or a sensitivity toward animals (think of The Horse Whisperer, not Beast Master). The hero is an old Britisher well past his prime, which is unconventional for the genre. But the men around him in rural North Georgia are keenly aware of that, and even as readers we are unsure if the guy is still sharp and strong enough to take out a lightning fast tiger. I think it heightens the sense of tension and vulnerability in the novel not to have some macho, gung-ho stud in his prime going after the tiger.
Don’t let the odd & dull B-movie that they made out of this fool you—this is a well-written, tense, and poignant novel.
Not that this book is without mysticism—there is some of that, and I normally don’t like that—but here it’s handled pretty deftly. It’s more about an uncanny hunting prowess or a sensitivity toward animals (think of The Horse Whisperer, not Beast Master). The hero is an old Britisher well past his prime, which is unconventional for the genre. But the men around him in rural North Georgia are keenly aware of that, and even as readers we are unsure if the guy is still sharp and strong enough to take out a lightning fast tiger. I think it heightens the sense of tension and vulnerability in the novel not to have some macho, gung-ho stud in his prime going after the tiger.
Don’t let the odd & dull B-movie that they made out of this fool you—this is a well-written, tense, and poignant novel.
April 4, 2023
Wow! Fantastic read! If you enjoy the Peter Hathaway Capstick books/library, I bet you'd enjoy this fiction book set in Georgia.
December 11, 2012
This book was fantastic. It follows the story of an escaped man-eating tiger as he terrorizes the residents of rural Georgia, and how he is seen through the eyes of the different characters.
July 14, 2012
This book was heart-pounding page turner and I loved every minute of it! One of my favorite all-time reads.
January 28, 2014
One of my favorite books. It kept my heart pounding with the suspense.
February 7, 2020
Fun read, a bit predictable at times and the writing style bored me a bit, but it was worth the read. No strong female characters which was LAME! Don’t think this passed the Bechdel test.
March 22, 2015
Not the kind of book I normally read. Couldn't put it down.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews