Probably closer to a 4.5. I might have gone flat out 5 but was surprised that it wasn't a complete story. While Repairman Jack has always had a central theme running through all the books each individual book wrapped up its main story. The fact that this one didn't did leave me a little disappointed. Still I love the series and can't wait to read the next one. ( )

First of all, there is way too much bad language. Story is pretty good. I read this without reading the previous Repairman Jack prequels, but there is a enough of a backstory presented in this book to create a sense of Jack's previous life. I am interested in the characters and events that were introduced here and will probably try the next one in the sequence. I listened to the Audible version and ( )

Jack is living under the radar in NYC as a landscaper, when he is provoked and nearly kills a co-worker in fury. With no income, he starts driving a truck smuggling cigarettes from North Carolina, and through a series of unfortunate events, gets forced into human trafficking. This triggers his moral compass and he decides to rescue the victims from their captors, invoking the wrath of yet another group. Meanwhile, we get introduced to Julio (bar owner of Jack's favorite haunt) and Abe, of Isher Sporting Goods. Violent. ( )

If you've been following the Repairman Jack saga as I have, you've probably lamented the fact that there was a large portion of Jack's life unaccounted for, the portion between where the "Jack" young adult books end and where he appears in "The Tomb". Well, F. Paul Wilson has heard our moans and is filling in the blank spots with three books intended to placate us…and then, NO MORE! Or so he insists, which doesn't leave much room for any future…but that all got wrapped up in "The Dark at the End", right? Right?

Anyway. "Cold City" finds Jack at home in NYC, having left the safe confines of his home in the Barrens to seek his fortune in the big (cold) city. He's already dropped out of Rutgers following the death of his mother (best explained in rest of the series) and is working in what he knew best, namely, groundskeeping. Doing well at it too, till a co-worker pushes him too far. Jack reacts as you expect Jack will, and the next thing you know, he's unemployed and being stalked by his revenge-seeking former co-workers. If you know Jack, you can imagine he's not exactly going to just sit and wait for them to come to him; instead, he decides to get himself ready for the inevitable payback and ends up calling at Isher Sports, home of the redoubtable Abe Grossman. Through Abe he finds work with a cigarette-runner at a grand a trip…not bad money.

Except…that the people buying the illicit smokes are Muslims financing terrorism. Or, is that really all that's going on? There's a shadowy figure behind the Islamo-facists, and it won't take you long to deduce that The Order is at play here, as always doing what it can to promote chaos on behalf of The One. The R man hisownself doesn't make an appearance, not yet anyway, but you've got to wonder if he might get a guest shot in any of the subsequent new stories.

Things only get more complicated when Jack gets coerced into trafficking a far more sinister cargo. And then he meets Julio, he of the bar with the dying ferns (only they're not dead yet) and goes out on his first "repair" job. Before you know it, Jack's enemies list has trebled. Oh, and there's a love interest too, to make things more convoluted than they already were.

It was worth the wait. "Cold City" is as good a book as any in the Repairman Jack series, and I read it way too quickly. You will too. Here's hoping F. Paul is hard at work on the next installment. ( )

The Repairman Jack books are an occasional read and I've come across them at random, so I've not followed the sequence properly, but basically he takes care of things that normal law enforcement types can't and comes across bizarre, supernatural evils that he has to deal with.
This book is a prequel where Jack comes into New York City as a very young man, takes a dead end job, proceeds to run afoul of some workmates, gets fired and then gets involved with a seedy enterprise that should have been fairly straight-forward, as long as he gets out in time.
Of course, things go badly wrong and he has to make some choices.
As a story, it's okay, but these are real people he's up against,not nasty supernatural types (though something is hinted at through the story) One of the characters has a bit of a rant about the value of the right to bear extreme arms and at another time there's a lecture explaining how certain countries are used to slavery, it comes to them naturally, which doesn't sit terribly well when you think of the history of slavery in our own culture.
So I'm only rating it 2 stars because those things leave a bad taste in my mouth.
( )