Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91860 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-18
• Released on: 2007-09-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A monstrous scheme to create an evil superman through crude efforts at gene jiggering bedevils urban mercenary Repairman Jack in his 11th outing (after 2006's Harbingers). When Jack, a New York City paranormal fixer, agrees to help Christy Pickering break up a relationship between her 18-year-old daughter and an older man, Jerry Bethlehem, he discovers Bethlehem is a violent criminal whose past includes abortion clinic bombings and a stay at a government-funded clinic conducting DNA research. Pickering is circumspect about her own background and her daughter's paternity. When Jack probes unspoken links between Pickering and Bethlehem, his investigation intrudes inexplicably upon a shady self-help guru. Sinuous plot twists and shocking revelations abound, but Wilson manages to pull these wildly disparate plot threads together, and tie them dexterously to the series' overarching chronicle of a battle between occult forces in which Jack serves as a reluctant but responsible warrior. Like its predecessors, this novel shows why Jack's saga has become the most entertaining and dependable modern horror-thriller series. (Oct.)
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Review

About the Author

Customer Reviews

This series just keeps getting better
In earlier installments of this outstanding series, author F. Paul Wilson would often weave two storylines, one with a foot in the so-called real world, the other grounded in the world of the supernatural. His last two books, however, have placed more emphasis on the supernatural. In INFERNAL, Jack was stricken by a mystical malady which threatened to erase him from this plane of existence; in HARBINGERS, he was forced cut a deal with the otherworldly Ally to protect all he held dear. In BLOODLINE, Wilson switches gears a bit, grounding the story in stark, but still dangerous, reality.

Still dealing with the fallout of the harrowing events chronicled in INFERNAL and HARBINGERS, Jack accepts a job that, at least on the surface, seems just the thing to help him ease back into the repair business--he's asked by protective mother Christy Pickering to break up her teenaged daughter Dawn's relationship with Jerry Bethlehem, a much older man of questionable morals. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Something that John D. MacDonald's quixotic Travis McGee might handle with aplomb, no doubt (Bethlehem being, in many ways, eerily reminiscent of the loathsome Junior Allen of DEEP BLUE GOODBYE fame). Of course, this being the world according to Jack, the situation is not as clear cut as it seems. Bethlehem turns out to be a hardened, dangerous criminal, released from prison because he agreed to take part in a scientific study.

Jerry, you see, is unique because his genome shows evidence of "other" or "o" DNA, a trait which causes extreme, explosive aggressiveness. The scientists studying him are fascinated by the research possibilities. Jerry, on the other hand, cares little about his genetic background--he's on a mission given to him by his psychopathic father, and his target is eighteen year old Dawn Pickering. As Jack unravels the mystery surrounding Bethlehem's twisted quest, he uncovers unsettling information that will change him forever.

As always, Wilson provides entertaining and intelligent reading--he hasn't lost his any of his edginess as the series has progressed, he's only gotten sharper and more proficient at providing shocking twists that will leave readers shaking their heads, first in utter disbelief, then in admiration. Wilson's no frills style makes him easy to underestimate as a writer, but he always delivers the goods--his annual forays into Jack's universe have become events, as his ever growing legion of fans flock to see where he's going to take them next.

Let It Bleed
F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series is one of the most well-written and enjoyable of its type out there. For anyone who isn't familiar with it - though it is likely someone reading a review of the eleventh book in the series is - think Dashiell Hammet meets HP Lovecraft, with a lighter tone than either. (In this novel he even playfully includes a hack scifi writer named P. Frank Winslow as a minor character.) Wilson maintains his usual readable standards in Bloodline, with the basis for the next sequel, also as usual, laid out in the last chapter.

Jack, an urban mercenary of sorts, but one who is selective about his clients and methods, takes on an apparently simple case; once again, and not as a coincidence, it blows up into something involving unseen forces - not quite supernatural in the usual sense, but otherworldly nonetheless.

All in all, this is a solid addition to the series. However, though I have no wish to deprive Mr. Wilson of a future downpayment on a beach house on the Jersey shore (and Jack is his creation to do with as he likes), as a reader I am at the point similar to an hour into a monster movie when, as viewer, I am getting impatient for the big lizard to rise out of the sea and trash Tokyo already. A storm has been building in the last few Repairman Jack novels. I await the author's unleashing of it, even though that probably means wrapping up the series.

Another One I Couldn't Put Down
I'm glad to see Jack back to what seem like his regular fix-its, though they are now more and more connected. This one continues where Harbingers left off and Jack is still reeling from a tragic event. However, this time, Vicky and Gia take a back seat to the story and I'll have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief. I read these stories for the action and mystery, not for the soap opera. Yeah, it's nice to know a few things about his personal life, but don't dwell on it.

Bloodline brings up some more questions to go with the answers. It is all linked. My only problem is there's a hint of an ending to the series in a few months of story time. I hope that is not true as I want this series to continue for a lot longer. However, I know how hard it is to consistently come up with fresh stuff for a tried-and-true character.

This is a competent and very well-done continuation of the Repairman Jack saga and I was not a bit disappointed in the usual "leave us hanging for the next one" ending. Highly recommended.