Repairman Jack, #1

HORROR / SUPERNATURAL MYSTERY

Much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Gia, Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with appliances. He fixes situations—situations that too often land him in deadly danger. His latest fix is finding a stolen necklace which, unknown to him, is more than a simple piece of jewelry.

Some might say it’s cursed, others might call it blessed. The quest leads Jack to a rusty freighter on Manhattan’s West Side docks. What he finds in its hold threatens his sanity and the city around him. But worst of all, it threatens Gia’s daughter Vicky, the last surviving member of a bloodline marked for extinction.

“Your believing or not believing in karma has no effect on its existence, nor on its consequences to you. Just as a refusal to believe in the ocean would not prevent you from drowning.”

I have been wanting to start this series for over ten years. I vaguely remember reading another book by the author that may have been in the series in my teens and highly enjoyed it. I like the long-running series with it’s high rating and unusual sounding protagonist, so off I start.

The overall plot is good. Repairman Jack is a unique character - he’s a good guy who doesn’t color in the lines and does what’s needed (even in the criminal element) to get stuff done. The book opens where a woman he loves, with a child he’s grown fond of, have discovered his secrets and want to avoid him. His internal struggles bring some realism to the opening of the story before he gets into a complicated, weird, and paranormal case - a first for him, opening the series on the right foot.

The background on the story is immersed in ancient Indian lore, magic, revenge, charms. There’s some creepiness, some brutality, some surprises - tie it all together into a neatly written bow and you have a good opening to a series. At times some of the backstory dragged, but this was floated along thanks to Wilson’s smooth writing ability.

I’m not a fan of Gia yet but apparently she’s going to stay around awhile, so I hope that she improves in the future. This one doesn't hold back on the violence or the paranormal brutality, so it falls into a darker and grittier Urban fantasy mystery type. I’m curious about the future books and will be continuing the series.

Also, you can’t go wrong with a main character who loves the classic Universal Monsters.