Conspiracies

Conspiracies (Repairman Jack 3) by F. Paul Wilson

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Before this book, I read one of F. Paul Wilson's “Young Jack” novels and a collection of his Secret History of the World short stories. I found the occultic, supernatural hints intriguing. So I decided to give the Repairman Jack stories a shot.

This is an enjoyable read. It launches into the story almost immediately and then sets a fast pace throughout the story. The story introduces us to “Repairman Jack,” who makes a living “fixing” things for people. In this book, Jack has a client whose sister is the victim of domestic violence and another client whose wife has disappeared. The two stories are unrelated, but provide energy to the story as Jack flips from one to the other.

The vanished wife plot is the main story of this book. The wife was a member of a group that believes in every conspiracy known to man. Jack has already had a run-in with the supernatural before this story opens, but in this story, he learns more about the supernatural world hiding just around the corner from this one. Thus, the reader gets acquainted with the “Adversary,” “the Twins,” the “Otherness,” and the cluster of strange births in 1968.

The story is a fun read in the action-adventure genre. The character of Jack is not developed. We know nothing about his background or his abilities. He doesn't seem particularly competent, except with respect to passing as ordinary and knowing about guns. For all his attempts to be a man of mystery, Jack is a nerd with a love of kitsch. I don't get the sense that he has a background as a “spook” or in the military. Nonetheless, this story seems to offer a taste of a tantalizing, mysterious world.