First appearance of The Adversary in the series. Jack reconnects with his sister, only to find her swept up into the Adversary's plans. ( )

Jack is riding on the subway when a passenger starts randomly shooting people until he puts him down; however, a reporter decides to pursue Jack as "The Savior" putting his anonymity at risk. Meanwhile his estranged sister unknowingly calls him for help in rescuing her lesbian lover, who has been injected with a virus that is creating a collective hive mentality among its victims. ( )

Granting that I'm a good deal older…but this story scared me almost as much as the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" so many years ago. The idea that your consciousness could be subverted & perverted is all too repulsive for me--this is also why I never finished Peter Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" series. In Hamilton's stories your consciousness is pushed out; in this story your sense of self is forcibly seduced and then perverted. If Wilson wasn't such a good writer I don't know if I could have finished reading it. ( )

I am liking this series more and more as it goes on. It gets weirder and Jack, along with his loved ones, gets into some crazy situations. He usually manages to save the day in the end, but it doesn't always go as planned... ( )

When Jeanette Vega is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor she is offered the chance to participate in an experimental treatment program using a tailored virus. A miracle cure follows, but what she or her lover Kate Iverson hadn't bargained for was the strange personality change which followed the treatment. Slowly but surely Jeanette is pulling away from Kate, and joins in a cult-like enclave with her fellow patients. When Kate is given Repairman Jack's card as a possible source of help, she makes contact. To the amazement of both Jack and Kate, they have already met - Jack is the brother who dropped out of their family after their mother was killed.

Jack has his own problems to deal with. Caught on a subway train with a mass murderer, he goes into action, shoots the killer and saves dozens of lives. Unfortunately, another passenger is Sandy Palmer, a third string reporter for a New York scandal sheet, who realizes this story is a chance to make it into the big time. Jack, who has made a career out of being totally anonymous, sees only that publicity will destroy his hard won independence. He is willing to do everything in his power to deflect Sandy's well meant attention.

The Repairman Jack novels started out as horror stories with a strong supernatural bent, and have gradually become suspense stories with a slight touch of the spooky. This is not one of my favourite Repairman Jack's novel. Too much focussed was given to the story of the journalist and his pursuit of the Savior. I would have preferred if more emphasis is given on Jack's 'fix-it' jobs. Maybe that's why Jack's heroism did not really shine in this novel.

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