Book Review: Conspiracies (Repairman Jack#3) by F.Paul Wilson

Conspiracies By F.Paul Wilson

**** 416 pages Tor

This is the third novel in the F.Paul Wilson epic Repairman Jack series and the first one where he ties Jack to the events that will weave into a 15 book story. Warning after book two it is possible to walk away from the series it gets much harder after this book.

You see Wilson has created a series time commitment because in this novel he is weaving events and a time-line together for two separate series (The Adversary cycle and Repairman Jack). The have the same ending and it is in this book that we really see the Wilson start that journey.

Again, the master plotter has tricked me. I had every reason to believe that book two was a stand alone, and Wilson has stated so. At the same time there are surprising connections. This book is also very connected by the locale to the Adversary novel “The Touch.”

In this novel Jack is pulled into the world of conspiracy theory. A woman set to attend a conference for Coast to coast AM types, she disappears and tells her husband how to contact the only person she claims can find her – Repairman Jack. Jack is confused but wants to understand so he takes the job.

This book thanks to the wing-nut characters provides more comic relief than any other Repairman Jack novel. Jack as a character continues to grow deeper and this novel provides great moments to side characters like Jack’s lover Gia and his best friend and black market weapons dealer Abe.

At the heart of this novel Jack is being pulled into the inescapable path that will lead humanity towards the end. Heavy stuff but there is lots of adventure and humor along the way of this novel. It is not as strong as the last book legacies, but it is strong enough to make me excited to keep reading.

As I post this review I have almost finished the series, and I can say that it is an important turning point in the series. One of my 2012 reading and reviewing goals is to read and review all the books in F.Paul Wilson’s Secret History of the World. This includes the entire Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack series.