The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson

Horror is another of those genres that I only read from time to time, usually based on positive recommendations of others who only read some horror or by writers I really like. I’ve heard a number of good things about the work of F. Paul Wilson. I was also fascinated by the idea of a horror series – his Repairman Jack series – since there aren’t that many horror series out there (at least not that I know of). So I picked up the first of the series – The Tomb.

The first half of the novel is much like a good mystery/crime novel. In fact, the whole books is in may ways closer to the mystery genre than it is to much of the horror genre. In most ways, it’s more of a mystery that turns out to have a fantasy side to it than a traditional horror novel. The main character, Repairman Jack, lives outside of society. He isn’t on any official records, doesn’t pay taxes and doesn’t have a social security number. He does freelance “repair” work. That is, if someone has a situation that needs to be fixed but which the law cannot help, he fixes it. This drove his long-time girlfriend Gia away when she found out about it, but it’s the life Jack likes. And he’s good at it.

A contact at the U.N. leads an Indian diplomat his way. The diplomat’s grandmother has been mugged and her antique necklace stolen. He wants Jack to recover it. Meanwhile, one of the Aunt’s of Gia’s ex-husband has disappeared, and she remaining aunt talks Gia into getting Jack’s help. Jack doesn’t know at this point that the two cases are really intertwined. The Indian diplomat is actually the last survivor of a group that could control Indian demons known as rakosh. He is in America tracking down the last surviving descendents of the Englishman who’d destroyed the temple that managed the rakosh and killed the others of the sect. The last survivors are the two Aunts and Gia’s daughter Vicky (who is very attached to Jack). (This may seem like a strange coincidence but Wilson actually makes a good case as to why the two seemingly disparate cases both involve Jack.)

In many ways, the novel can mostly be viewed as a very good adventure story. It’s exciting and imaginative, and it’s hard to stop anywhere in the last 150 pages or so. The characterizations are also quite good – not only of Jack, Gia, and Vicky, but also the various side characters. I particularly liked Abe, who runs the Isher weapon shop (an homage to A. E. van Vogt; Abe even has a neon sign saying “the right to buy weapons is the right to be free”) from whom Jack gets his special supplies, and who is prone to viewing the news and putting the worst possible spin on everything.

It was a fun novel, and good enough to make me go right out and buy Legacies, the next novel in the series, which I hope to read sometime during the holiday break (though of course I have three times as many books on my “read these during the holiday break” pile than I’ll actually ever have time to get around to). In any case, recommended, even if you don’t usually like horror.