F. Paul Wilson, Crisscross

Crisscross

F. Paul Wilson

Forge, Oct 2004, $24.95, 414 pp.

ISBN: 0765306913

Few know that Repairman Jack exists except his pregnant girlfriend Gia, her daughter, and a few other souls that he trusts. People turn to Jack when they need problems solved without the police involved. Jack fixes things for cash only as he has no money or paper trail to follow. Jack seeks a way out of the cold without attracting attention so that he can marry Gia.

While he ponders his problem, two cases come to him. Maggie the nun says that someone is blackmailing her with illicit pictures of her with her lover; she wants Jack to destroy the pictures before the Church finds out. Maria hires Jack to learn if her son is okay since she lost contact with him when he joined the Dormentalist Church whose founder Luther Brady believes that burying certain designated pillars in specific locations will fuse this world with its mirror realm leading to paradise regained.

Jack destroys the pictures with a little help from a hacker, but when Maggie informs her lover that they no longer have to pay the extortionist, tragedy occurs. Jack learns about the pillars and what will happen once Brady finishes planting them; he must stop the false prophet at all costs to save the world as we know it.

Repairman Jack novels are always fun to read, but this thriller, though also quite entertaining and exciting, is much darker than usual. He solves the nun's problem, but the results are not what he or she expected forcing him to take an amoral position with the blackmailer. The Brady problem is simply world threatening. For those who know Jack will know that F. Paul Wilson provides another fantastic reading experience.

Harriet Klausner