osts is the latest installment in the series dedicated to Wilson's popular rogue of honor, Repairman Jack, who was first introduced in The Tomb (1984). An ultracompetent, asocial outsider by temperament and the accidents of his upbringing, Jack lived beyond all officialdom, sheltering behind numerous false IDs and trading mainly in cash. He earned his living by charging large fees to extricate people from sticky situations of all stripes and degrees, employing any methods, legal or illegal, not excluding violence.
All the Rage (2000), the last novel in the series, concentrated on a new drug menace in Jack's hometown of New York. The origin of the drug, Berzerk, proved to hark back to events in The Tomb, which occurred, we are startled to realize, merely a year or so ago in Jack's universe. A mere four weeks have elapsed when Hosts opens. Jack's long-estranged sister, Kate, pops up in his life, coincidentally seeking his services. After their surprised reunion, Kate explains that her lover, Jeanette, is involved in a mysterious and possibly evil cult. Jack, of course, eagerly agrees to help Kate and her lover.
But his job would have been easier if not for one accident of fate: Jack was riding the subway when a random killer began shooting. Forced to intervene with dramatic violence to save his life and those of others, the publicity-hating Jack is now the object of a callow young reporter named Sandy, who's determined to out him. Additionally, two of Jack's old enemies have now gotten a lead on him due to the media's attention, and are stalking him with plastic explosives in hand.
Despite all these hindrances, Jack pushes forward with his investigations. He and Kate soon discover that Jeanette's recent miraculous cancer cure has infected her brain with a mysterious organism. Her fellow cultists, all harboring the same bug, are eventually proven to be a finger extending from the other-dimensional Abyss and its monstrous denizens, the chief of whom is known merely as the Adversary. Calling themselves the Unity and corrupting the famous motto "e pluribus unum" into a plan for the subversion of mankind, the small cell intends to infect all humanity. Once Kate and Jack are themselves infected, the countdown begins ticking. Will Jack escape his assassins, the bug and the glare of the media, and manage to save both his sister and the world? And who is the mysterious woman lurking on the fringe of events, to whom locked doors are no barrier? These questions cascade into a whitewater ride of suspense, outcome uncertain right to the end.
All readers should know Jack
The ethical loner intent on righting wrongs, the modern world's version of a knight errant, has a long pedigree, dating back at least to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. Ostensibly, Jack works only for money, although of course in every adventure he inevitably ends up letting his emotions and ethics intrude, and the cases become personal. But still, he's no omniprotective do-gooder like Batman (a figure explicitly referenced). Beneath Jack's pragmatic exterior lurks a fair share of rage, as witnessed in the novel prior to this one. As for Jack's main novelty, his ghostly presence outside all recordkeeping, we can point directly to a predecessor, the protagonist of Roger Zelazny's My Name Is Legion (1976).
All these influences cohere neatly, however, under Wilson's deft skill set. A practicing M.D., Wilson can cobble together lively medical McGuffins, such as the brain-warping virus in this outing. He has a firm fix on the parameters of Jack's psyche, keeping his protagonist organically believable. (With his fascination with mid-20th-century pop culture, his workout regimen, colorful buddies and carping girlfriend, Jack also calls to mind Robert Parker's Spenser.) Wilson's prose and pacing are exemplary. Although not partial to high romance, poetically inspired passages or cosmic descriptions of his supernatural elements, Wilson respects his readership with crisp, taut sentences not shoddily constructed.
As with all series, there are pluses and minuses connected with the recurrence of motifs and characters. One can chart with some predictability the various visits to libertarian-talking Abe at his Isher Sporting Goods, the joking/bonding interludes with daughter Vicky, and so forth. And in fact the scene in which sister Kate discovers Jack's armory is exactly the same scene as in The Tomb when Gia was poking around. But this kind of familiarity is balm to some readers, and Wilson does not overdo it. And in fact, he upsets several established conventions here, making Jack a reactive character rather than a proactive one for the first time, and threatening to undermine his identity and very way of life.
