Description:

From Publishers Weekly

Wilson's 12th action-packed adventure of urban mercenary Repairman Jack picks up where Bloodlines (2007) abruptly ended, with Jack's ongoing efforts to thwart the sociopathic Kicker cult and its efforts to breed a malignant messiah. When a Japanese businessman offers him a new assignment tracking down a legendary katana with occult properties, Jack quickly finds himself struggling to keep the sword out of the hands of a cabal of yakuza gangsters, as well as the Kakureta Kao, a mystical order of monks who hope to channel its power to devastate New York City. Besides combining these disparate plot threads together with his usual dexterity, Wilson continues to lay the groundwork for Jack's long-awaited showdown with his supernatural nemesis, Rasolom. More violent and complex than its predecessors, this novel serves up the occult thrills fans of Wilson's series have come to expect and tantalizes with the promise of more surprises to come. (Nov.)
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From

The Repairman Jack series, which started so strong, has hit a rough patch, and this latest adventure does nothing to escape the doldrums. This time, Jack, the adventurous fix-it man whose repair jobs tend to involve supernatural elements, is hot on the trail of a Japanese sword that was stolen from a museum 50-odd years ago and has now been stolen from the thief’s son. With what has become ho-hum predictability, Jack’s pursuit of the sword leads him into very dangerous territory. Wilson continues to write effective thrillers, but he can’t seem to inject any freshness into his series, and the formula itself is not elaborate enough to sustain the enterprise on its own. In its early days (Legacies, 1998, for example), this series attracted a cult following, and it still has diehard fans. They (and only they) will be pleased with Wilson’s latest and look forward to more. For the rest of us, it seems clear that Repairman Jack desperately needs a tune-up. --David Pitt