F. Paul Wilson

This one is the best of the Jack prequels, probably because all of the loose threads from the two earlier books finally getting stitched together. It's also such a success because FPW goes back to something he's really good at - folding in real life events to his fictional narrative. In this case, it's the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Jack thwarts the radicalized Muslim operatives on some level, but not completely. This one is so much fun because Jack seems fully realized at this point - show more and because we see the rage and vengeance start to leak into his psyche and behavior, a quandary he constantly noodles over throughout this book. He also gets ever so close to exposing the Order's involvement, only to let them slip by him without knowing it. But they know that they've come across a formidable opponent.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly Recommended!!!!! show less

What a banger. This connects up to [The Keep], [Reborn], [The Tomb], and the short story Faces. Best way to describer this one without a bunch of spoilers is that Jack gets sucked into a missing person investigation that he must conduct in the midst of a Conspiracy Theory convention. It's a wonderful set-up because so much of the stuff that happens around Jack as it relates to the One and the Secret Order reeks of conspiracy theories. So, Jack doubts his own sanity quite a bit through the show more book. But the climatic ending features Jack present as a house collapses into a cosmic hole in the ground. At this point, Jack must confront that he's been sucked into a cosmic battle between two powerful forces, and there's little he can do about it.

A short side note - the girlfriend, Gia - at first, I thought she was a bit of a passing character based on FPW not quite fleshing her into a full person. But she appears to be here for the long haul, and she's become a better part of the story and better written.

5 bones!!!!!
Highly Recommended!!!!! show less

This entry in [[[The Secret History of the World]]] series is by far the quietest and slowest-burning so far. It's downright quotidian for easily three quarters of the reading. And then.....when Wilson unleashes the horror..... it's arresting beyond words.

Jimmy and Carol can't have a baby; Jimmy can't get anything published; Jimmy gets an unexpected bounty in the form of a gaudy inheritance. That Carol is having downright blood-thirsty nightmares and urges, though some of the urges tend show more toward the basely sexual, too, is the only clue that we're not in Kansas any more, Toto.

The book calls back to the epic ending of [The Keep], where the malevolent presence is supposed to be vanquished - but we should all know better than that. This time, instead of a magic sword-wielding hero, we've got a weird Catholic Pentecostal sect of true believers who want to conduct a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, back-room (or in this case, kitchen) abortion. Honestly, I'm not sure how this book got published since the Satanic Panic hadn't completely died down when it was written. But I'm glad it did - it's a corker, in the end.

4 bones!!!! mainly because it was quotidian for too long.
Highly Recommended!!!! show less

Crisscross is the 8th book in the Repairman Jack series and as is to be expected things are getting darker not only for the world but for Jack. The events Wilson lays before us in this book find Jack’s patience and tolerance for the bad guys wearing very thin. Does it snap? Well that would be a spoiler. As usual Jack is working on two fixes at once but this time neither one go according to plan and place him in a position where he must make a decision. The reviews on this book mention a show more stab in the ribs of Scientology…yes. But there is far more to the wind that Wilson uses to push the sails of Jack’s ship towards his destiny. The author does a very good job of making Jack and the reader aware that his path is leading him somewhere he would rather not be but also to a place he needs to be and exactly what his place will be once he gets there. Wilson knows how people think and it is rather chilling to see how he can tap into the good and bad of what makes us tick. A Nun with a secret and a Scientologyesque cult form the backbone the story. But not to be left out are the guardian angels that have been guiding jack towards Year-Zero. show less