A review by david_agranoff
The Haunted Air by F. Paul Wilson
5.0
This might be the best of the Repairman Jack series so far. Legacies (#2) was the best plotted, Conspiracies (#3) is probably the most fun, and Hosts (#5) was the most heart-breaking. The Haunted Air is the most perfect blend so far. It has all the elements that make a great Repairman Jack novel and it is a quick fun read.
It is fitting that Wilson does a slight of hand plot wise, he has done that before with Legacies and The Keep. Those novels will dupe you with misdirection. Well F.Paul Wilson you fool me once shame on you fool me twice double good on you. I was convinced 100 pages into the novel that Legacies was a haunted house novel. It was in no way a haunted house novel. This Repairman Jack novel is very much a haunted house novel. Of course I assumed it was another trick. Damn you Wilson!
It is indeed a haunted house novel, and due to the house’s unique residents the novel becomes a refreshing take on the classic tale. It is a Repairman Jack novel after all. Jack is hired by two so-called psychics who run a bait and switch scam out of the haunted house. (The hardest trick of the haunted house novel is why would the victims stay? Solved here by the scammers needing the house for their scam)
At first the haunted aspects of the house are considered the acts of jealous competing psychics. Jack helps fix the problem by running a scam on the psychics. At the same time the greater web of horror involving the background of Jack’s life begins to unravel. His girlfriend Gia is pulled into the horror hidden below the house. Jack already knows there are no coincidences in his life anymore.
This near perfect Repairman Jack novel weaves small touches from the Adversary novels (The Keep and Reborn) while moving the greater story of Jack forward. I loved this novel, as I have the others. The only tiny nitpick I would have would be the dialogue of Lyle and Charles, the scammers were born and lived most of their lives in the Detroit ghetto. Some of it didn’t ring true; I had this same problem with Dan Simmons Carrion Comfort. Tiny thing in a novel that is so solid.
Haunted Air is a great stand alone Repairman Jack novel, but it also weaves into the greater story of the Secret history of the World. If you only read one I would read Legacies or this one. You can’t go wrong.
It is fitting that Wilson does a slight of hand plot wise, he has done that before with Legacies and The Keep. Those novels will dupe you with misdirection. Well F.Paul Wilson you fool me once shame on you fool me twice double good on you. I was convinced 100 pages into the novel that Legacies was a haunted house novel. It was in no way a haunted house novel. This Repairman Jack novel is very much a haunted house novel. Of course I assumed it was another trick. Damn you Wilson!
It is indeed a haunted house novel, and due to the house’s unique residents the novel becomes a refreshing take on the classic tale. It is a Repairman Jack novel after all. Jack is hired by two so-called psychics who run a bait and switch scam out of the haunted house. (The hardest trick of the haunted house novel is why would the victims stay? Solved here by the scammers needing the house for their scam)
At first the haunted aspects of the house are considered the acts of jealous competing psychics. Jack helps fix the problem by running a scam on the psychics. At the same time the greater web of horror involving the background of Jack’s life begins to unravel. His girlfriend Gia is pulled into the horror hidden below the house. Jack already knows there are no coincidences in his life anymore.
This near perfect Repairman Jack novel weaves small touches from the Adversary novels (The Keep and Reborn) while moving the greater story of Jack forward. I loved this novel, as I have the others. The only tiny nitpick I would have would be the dialogue of Lyle and Charles, the scammers were born and lived most of their lives in the Detroit ghetto. Some of it didn’t ring true; I had this same problem with Dan Simmons Carrion Comfort. Tiny thing in a novel that is so solid.
Haunted Air is a great stand alone Repairman Jack novel, but it also weaves into the greater story of the Secret history of the World. If you only read one I would read Legacies or this one. You can’t go wrong.