Crisscross

The excellently-penned Repairman Jack series mixes action, mystery, thriller, horror, sci-fi, humor, pop culture and philosophy all together to create an alternate-universe world that works on multiple levels to keep me turning pages. I give a solid 5 stars to every book in the series! Crisscross is another great read that furthers the RJ story along. I first read Harbingers, and have just finished reading all the RJ books, although I didn't read any of them in order, just whichever was available at the library when I finished one and needed another. Since the story does develop with each installment I plan to buy them all in paperback and read them again in order, starting with The Tomb and including Nightworld. BTW - I love Abe - he reminds me of my uncle :)

Because F. Paul Wilson does such a terrific job putting the reader inside Repairman Jack's head, the energetic third person narrative with which he writes comes off as first person POV, placing the reader and the protagonist Jack on the same page together, which is fine with me because I am crazy about the Repairman. In CRISSCROSS, Dr. Wilson's eighth novel in the Repairman Jack vigilante series, we find our very average-looking but remarkable anti-hero working simultaneous jobs: One is for a nun who is being blackmailed, as she hires Jack to retrieve some questionable photos for her from her blackmailer; and the other a missing-persons case, which Jack is hesitant about taking on. Jack does not like doing missing-person cases. But the lady who implores him to find her son -- who she suspects might have fallen victim to some manner of foulness perpetrated by the Dormentalist Church, which her son joined several months back -- is very persuasive, especially when she pays Jack a whopping up front fee of twenty-five thousand dollars. It is hard for Jack to say no to the cash, but even harder to say no to the distressed Grand Dame herself. Jack has a heart, and finds it nearly impossible to walk away from those in need of help. Consequently, he commits to both jobs, not realizing that by doing so he is also putting his pregnant fiancé Gia, and Gia's nine-year-old daughter, Vicky, in direct danger from an ancient and supernatural nemesis, whose path Jack seems to cross with every job he takes on. A mysterious woman however warned him recently that there would be no more coincidences in his life. The Repairman is a paradox, a combination of the noblesse oblige of the high minded with the edgy drive of the hired mercenary. Jack is smart, quick, capable, brave, resourceful, reliable, oppositional and, most of all, lovable. I hope he is around for a very long time. CRISSCROSS is highly recommended reading, as are all of F. Paul Wilson's stories. Like his character Jack, he always comes through for his readers.

F. Paul Wilson published his first horror novel, The Keep in 1981. Discussing the book in Horror: 100 Best Books, J. N. Williamson wrote, "It is difficult...to imagine anything essential to the genre's form which was omitted. Whatever a reader or reviewer of horror fiction thinks primary-necessary in the sense of originality of idea, basic to tight plotting and its progression, desirable in characterization and imperative in terms of suspense, surprise and the inexorable buildup of the total storyline from event to event, chapter to chapter-seems to me present in Dr. Wilson's work." After The Keep, Wilson published five more books in what he came to call the "Adversary Cycle": The Tomb (1984), The Touch (1986), Reborn (1990), Reprisal (1991), and Nightworld (1992). Apocalyptic fiction at its best, the Adversary Cycle introduced several concepts that came to form the core of much of Wilson's fictional universe: the ancient, evil entity called Rasalom, his eternal opponent Glaeken, the town of Monroe, Long Island (Wilson's analog of Arkham, Oxrun Station, and Castle Rock), the wandering healing spirit known as the Dat-tay-vao (first seen in The Touch), and the modern pulp hero known as Repairman Jack. The secretive Jack, who conceals his existence from the world, made his first appearance in The Tomb. Not wanting to be locked in to writing a series character, Wilson left him near death at the end of that novel, only to have him reappear in Nightworld, playing a key role in frustrating Rasalom's bid to enslave humanity. Jack's fans proving persistent, Wilson responded with a new Repairman Jack novel, titled Legacies in 1998, following it with Conspiracies (1999), All the Rage (2000), Hosts (2001), The Haunted Air (2002), and Gateways (2003). Set between the events in The Tomb and Nightworld, the books chronicle Jack's growing awareness of the battle between Rasalom and the entity he refers to as `the Otherness" or " the Ally." Similar to the late Isaac Asimov, Wilson is working to link the bulk of his fictional output, subtly revising the books in the Adversary Cycle to fit the new continuity he is creating through his Repairman Jack novels. CrissCross, the latest installment in Jack's ongoing saga, finds Dr. Wilson in excellent form. As is his custom, he gives Jack two problems which inevitably converge-as Jack was told in an earlier story, there are no more coincidences for him. This time out, the repairman attempts to rescue a convert to the up and coming religion of Dortmentalism, at the same time trying to extricate a Catholic nun from a sticky blackmail situation. Rather than reveal too much of Wilson's engaging plot, let's just say that the author seems to take great pleasure in complicating Jack's already complex existence; readers, especially fans of rugged types like Travis McGee, will delight in watching Wilson extricate his creation from the deadly situations he's concocted. Their only qualm will come from the realization

To those who know him, Repairman Jack is without a doubt the most beloved of the contemporary fictional figures, bar none. He has a fan club, Stephen King is a charter member, after his first book and a couple short stories, he disappeared for ten years and was bought back by popular demand. Jack could be described as a fixer - you got problem and for a fee he can fix it, or a champion of the oppressed - you can't afford a fee, we'll work something out. To the government he doesn't exist. He has never collected a paycheck and has never paid income tax. He has no credit, no credit cards, no FICO score, has never voted, has no social security card, has never been arrested, has no driver's license or passport (at least in his real name). In short he works outside the system totally under the radar. In Crisscross, Jack has two new clients. One is a strange elderly lady with a dog, named Herta (in the last few books there have been strange ladies with dogs, the last one of which told Jack there would be no more coincidences in his life). It seems her son had joined the fast growing Dormentalist Church and recently she has lost touch with him. The second is a moderately attractive young lady, Maggie, (whom Jack finds out later is a nun) who is being blackmailed for some compromising photos. To get the lowdown on the Dormentalists, Jack meets with reporter Jamie Grant, who recently ran the first installment of an exposé on the Dormentalist Church. He plans on infiltrating the church by joining, to which Jamie informs him it's not that easy, proceeding to tell him why. Jack, with help from acquaintances, lays groundwork to attract the top gun of Dormentalism, one Luther Bradley by claiming to be one guy while carrying identification which purports that Jack is one Jason Amari, the wealthy son of an even wealthier businessman. Naturally the security chief discovers this and Jack finds himself in with the head honcho, Bradley because of the families apparent wealth. On the Blackmail end, Jack finds out who the blackmailer is, a crumb named Richie Cordova, who plays at being a private investigator but in reality is a private shake down artist. Jack figures Maggies pictures and others are probably on his computer and he probably has a back up, so he makes arrangement, again with the help of an acquaintance, to introduce a virus into Cordova's computer and follow him to locate the backup. Things are moving along swimmingly on both fronts when little by little things start to unravel. The Church security chief, a behemoth of a man named Jensen thinks there is something fishy about Amari and continues to check him out, eventually locating a photo of the reclusive Amari and after having all his blackmail files destroyed by Jack, Cordova discovers that it was done purposely by someone and Maggie was the one that hired him. CONCLUSION This story is a little slow getting started but about halfway through it really gets going big time. Wilson does a s

I'm a big F. Paul Wilson fan and a huge Repairman Jack fan. I paid the $55.00 for the limited edition book. Why? Two reasons. One, I collect books (and actually read them). Two, I did not want to want for the trade edition to come out. Crisscross was worth well worth the money and time I spent reading the book. I have all of the Gauntlet Press Repairman Jack books. Repairman Jack is a fix-it guy. If you have a problem, he will fix it for you. He lives on the fringe of society. He does not have a social security number, nor does he pay taxes. In Crisscross, there are two story lines that tie in together. A nun, who is caught on film in a compromising position wants Jack to get back the pictures. Two, a mother wants Jack to find her son who is deeply involved in a world wide cult with sinister ties.Crisscross is a stand alone book, but is part of Wilson's Adversary series (I think it fits into the Lovecraft Universe). Most of Wilson's books and short stories (including an anthology that he edited) tie into his Adversary Universe. His books are awesome and I'm happy that I've started reading them about four years back. Wilson is definitely one of the best writers out there. If you don't want to spend $55 on a limited edition, you can wait until it is released in trade hardback or paperback. In the meantime, you can pick up trade hardbacks and paperbacks of the Adversary series (The Keep, The Touch, The Tomb, Reborn, Reprisal and Nightworld), and the Repairman Jack books (The Tomb, Legacies, Conspiracies, All the Rage, Hosts, Gateways, and The Haunted Air).This is the best series out there.