The Tomb

F. Paul Wilson's THE TOMB introduces the character Repairman Jack. Jack is the enigmatic loner who fixes things for a price. He believes in being armed and letting no one dictate how he lives his life - this is especially true for the government. He pays no taxes and has no identification. He lives off the grid and avoids authorities. But he is honest and loyal to his friends. In some ways he is similar to Lee Child's Jack Reacher except he doesn't travel.

In this book, Jack is contracted to find the necklace stolen from an old woman in a mugging and to help find the missing aunt of he former girlfriend. These may seem like standard private eye plotlines, but Jack's world intersects with the supernatural. There are forces working against him that he does not understand nor believe. But he still fights the good fight and comes to know the enemy.

This is a fun little read and I will try more adventures of Repairman Jack in the future. But I need to devour some other long-standing titles in my library before devoting time to the dozen stories Wilson has out there.

On an interesting note, THE TOMB was written in the 1980s, but when the series restarted in the 1990s, Wilson went back and reedited this to reflect the more modern sensibilities rather than age the character or backdate the other books. This is the opposite of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series where the character is definitely stuck in the same decade in which the novels began. Also by doing this, he can place young Jack in 1983 for the Jack: Secret Histories young adult series. This is good strategy and great marketing.