Infernal: A Repairman Jack Novel

When I got to the end of this book, I immediately wanted to start reading #10. Unfortunately, #10 is only out in hardcover right now (I collect this series in regular old paperback).
Of all the various series I read, Repairman Jack is the most original and least repetitive, with only a few

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characters (not a whole cast of clowns) that the reader needs to remember and keep track of.
My husband recently started reading again, and when he asked two weeks ago what he should go for, I gave him the first Repairman Jack book, The Tomb. He is about to start book #3 tomorrow. ‘nuff said.

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One of the weaker entries in the series. Jack's father is caught in a terrorist attack, and he reunites with brother Tom, a sleazy judge. Tom talks him into going to Bermuda to access a hopefully-secret account and winds up roping him into a quest for a mysterious shipwreck that hides an object

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much better forgotten forever.

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This wasn't my favorite RJ book. I really hated Jack's brother and hated being in his head. His sudden change of heart at the end felt contrived. But it was nice to see the Kenton brothers again.

A later entry in the Repairman Jack series about Jack the vigilante-for-hire who fixes situations, not toasters. Grieving overt his father's loss, Jack agrees reluctantly to help his brother, Tom, a corrupt judge, retrieve hidden funds and disappear. But Tom also has his eye on something else that

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ups the stakes and threatens everything Jack holds dear. An interesting inner portrayal of the brother, the usual action-filled story with Jack's own oddball allies, and a nice ending. Repairman Jack is the best. By this time the supernatural element has grown in importance. This is my second reading of this book. Makes me want to reread some others, aside from the many-times=read The Keep and The Tomb which launched Jack's series, as well as the series-ender.

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This is the most disjointed entry in the Repairman Jack series so far, almost certainly because of the self-imposed restrictions set in place by the author himself. All of Jack’s solo adventures (not counting the prequels) take place between his debut in The Tomb and the conclusion of the

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Adversary Cycle, Nightworld--written in 1984 and 1992, respectively. Infernal came out in 2005, with six more volumes to follow.

As usual, the story opens coldly realistic, as befitting an urban fix-it man and sometime avenger. It’s not long before the mystic and otherworldly elements come into play. There are problems, story wise, with both aspects of Jack’s world.

Almost immediately Jack’s father dies in a hail of terrorist bullets at New York’s La Guardia Airport. As Jack mourns he sets about finding those responsible. But the quest for vengeance is quickly set aside. The story turns out to be more about Jack’s brother, a sleazy Philadelphia judge whose past is about to land him permanently in jail. In using the supernatural as a means to escape his earthly woes, he promptly endangers Jack’s girlfriend and her daughter, the only two people left whom Jack loves.

The terrorist getting away virtually unscathed is the byproduct of telling a larger overreaching story, and they’ll probably be dealt with in a forthcoming book. Therein lay the point. The story’s problems are only problems to the uninitiated. Jack knows exactly where to find a particular “séance” that leads him to an ancient book with possible solutions, and this come off as very convenient. It also stretches credibility that Jack has seen this book before and knows exactly where to find it. But only in this particular novel. Again, there is a bigger picture. This has all been established in previous novels.

This is not the place to be dropped into Jack’s world. And I suspect this to be true of the rest of the novels going forward. So go back to the beginning. Repairman Jack is a fascinating character and Wilson is master storyteller. It’s still a trip worth taking. But in the proper order.

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