From Publishers Weekly
Urban mercenary Repairman Jack is back after a long hiatus, but Wilson's work-for-hire outlaw has clearly lost his edge since his last novel-length adventure, The Tomb (1984). Although still a lean and mean equalizer who makes his living "fixing" personal injustices, he has developed a soft spot for the kind of sympathetic victim that no conscientious defender could refuse. This new escapade pairs him with Alicia Clayton, head of a pediatric AIDS clinic in Manhattan, who has inherited a valuable Murray Hill townhouse from her estranged father. Alicia would love to destroy the building and with it memories of childhood sexual abuse she suffered there, but she is prevented by her slimy half-brother, Thomas, who offers to buy the house for an outrageous sum of money and whom she suspects is responsible for the violent deaths of everyone she hires to dispose of it. Jack eventually teases out the intricate thread that binds Thomas, his secret Saudi Arabian backers, an enigmatic Japanese spy and Alicia's secret shame to the property, but not without considerable help from fortuitous coincidences, lucky deductions and unlikely motives. Wilson (Deep as the Marrow) tries to prop up the shaky logic of his tale with preachy attacks against drug abuse, child pornography and parental irresponsibility, but these issues are too weighty for his pulpy villains and strained plot to bear. Jack still thrills with cliffhanger escapes and ingenious snares for the blundering bad guys, but he emerges from this novel less a hero than a hostage to its social consciousness. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Repairman Jack is back. The hero of Wilson's The Tomb, a New York Times best seller in 1984, is hired to fix a problem for Dr. Alicia Clayton: She's inherited a house she wants destroyed, given its dark past, but someone is getting in her way.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Fourteen years after his debut in The Tomb, Repairman Jack returns in a clever thriller that's sure to delight Wilson's fans. Jack, a fix-it man who specializes in solving people's problems (and who, as far as the authorities are concerned, doesn't even exist), does a favor for a friend--he recovers some toys stolen from a hospital--and winds up helping a woman solve a deadly mystery from her past. Repairman Jack is a strong man whose moments of compassion don't seem forced, an enigma without being annoyingly mysterious. Confronted with a baffling puzzle, Jack relies on a combination of skill and luck to solve the mystery with a minimum of violence. Wilson's many fans will enjoy this second Repairman Jack story and no doubt hope the author doesn't wait quite so long before writing a third one. David Pitt


From Kirkus Reviews
Repairman Jack returns for the first time since Wilson's The Tomb (1984), where we met him as a high-spirited mystery man righting wrongs and going after bad guys. The story this time opens with some comic-book Capra stuff as shadowy Jack tracks down the thief who stole a load of wrapped Christmas presents from Manhattan's Center for Children with AIDS. Disguise artist Jack turns up in a Santa suit when delivering his idiosyncratic brand of justice to this particular criminal (who thinks and talks in comic-book argot), takes a bullet in his ten-ply vest under the Santa jacket, and returns the gifts to the dying kids. Then his main squeeze, Gia, asks him to help the Center's pediatrician, Dr. Alicia Clayton, whose lawyer has just been assassinated in an exploding Lexus. Alicia is beset by her balmy half-brother Thomas, who wants to keep possession of their late father's two-story brownstone in Murray Hill and apparently doesn't think that Alicia and her lawyer are too high a price to pay, while all Alicia wants is to donate the house as an AIDS branch office. Jack, by the way, likes his jokes, one time seemingly biting out a man's eye, then spitting it onto a windshield. In fact, his joy is ever to be one up on the evil-doers, relishing the agonies of the corrupt and disadvantaged. Back to Capra, though: at the Center, tough Jack falls for tiny Hector, whose immune system is failing rapidly. And as for the house, what secret does it hold that makes it worth the four million that Thomas offers Alicia for it? Could it be a transmitter, invented by Alicia's dad, to broadcast power and keep bulbless lamps lighted with only tiny receivers in a surge of wireless electricity? Ah, a legacy worth much more than four mil.... All very amusing. Wilsons fans wont be disappointed. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Repairman Jack is one of the most original and intriguing characters to arise out of contemporary fiction in ages. ...Hugely entertaining." --Dean Koontz

"F. Paul Wilson is a hot writer, and his hottest, and my favorite creation, is Repairman Jack. No one does this kind of weird meets crime better than Wilson. Gripping, fascinating, one of a kind. That's F. Paul Wilson and Repairman Jack." --Joe R. Lansdale

"Jack is righteous!" --Andrew Vachss

"Repairman Jack [is] a Byronic hero fans have begged to see again for more than a decade. Legacies is a righteous follow-up....The book is a lot of fun, and Wilson has promised that Jack will be back soon." --Rocky Mountain News



Review
"Repairman Jack is one of the most original and intriguing characters to arise out of contemporary fiction in ages. ...Hugely entertaining." --Dean Koontz

"F. Paul Wilson is a hot writer, and his hottest, and my favorite creation, is Repairman Jack. No one does this kind of weird meets crime better than Wilson. Gripping, fascinating, one of a kind. That's F. Paul Wilson and Repairman Jack." --Joe R. Lansdale

"Jack is righteous!" --Andrew Vachss

"Repairman Jack [is] a Byronic hero fans have begged to see again for more than a decade. Legacies is a righteous follow-up....The book is a lot of fun, and Wilson has promised that Jack will be back soon." --Rocky Mountain News



Book Description
Repairman Jack isn't your average appliance repairman--he fixes situations for people, often risking his own life. Jack has no last name, no social security number, works only for cash, and has no qualms when it comes to seeing that the job gets done.

Dr. Alicia Clayton, a pediatrician who treats children with AIDS, is full of secrets, and she has just inherited a house that holds another. Haunted by painful memories, Alicia wants the house destroyed--but somehow everyone she enlists to help ends up violently killed. The house holds a powerful secret, and Alicia's charmless brother Thomas seems willing to do anything to get his hands on that secret himself.

But not if Repairman Jack can find it first!



About the Author
F. Paul Wilson, a New York Times bestselling author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything in between, is a practicing physician who resides in Wall, New Jersey.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dr. Alicia Clayton, a pediatrician who works with children who have AIDS, is full of secrets, and she has just inherited a house that holds another. For some reason, her repulsive half brother Thomas is willing to do anything to get their late father's house out of her hands. Haunted by painful memories, Alicia wants the house destroyed -- but somehow everyone she enlists to help ends up mysteriously dead. She's going to need Repairman Jack. He fixes situations for people; he has no last name or social security number, works only for cash, and has no qualms about using extreme force or risking his own safety to see that the job is done.

Jack soon discovers that the house holds the key to a secret that can change the world and that Thomas is simply a front for formidable forces determined to wrest that key from Alicia's hands at any cost. Jack must help Alicia discover the house's secret before Thomas' allies catch on and arrange a new mysterious and violent death for him.

SYNOPSIS

Granted, suspense and horror fans greet any new F. Paul Wilson novel with joyful anticipation, but Legacies is truly something special -- the eagerly awaited return of Repairman Jack in novel form. Unlike The Tomb (now finally back in print), this time Jack's problems are anything but supernatural -- he's got an international techno-conspiracy to worry about. bn.com's Andrew LeCount recently had the opportunity to ask F. Paul Wilson a few questions about Jack, Legacies, using controversial issues for novel plots, and the rumored Tomb film.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

Repairman Jack returns for the first time since Wilson's The Tomb, where we met him as a high-spirited mystery man righting wrongs and going after bad guys.The story this time opens with some comic-book Capra stuff as shadowy Jack tracks down the thief who stole a load of wrapped Christmas presents from Manhattan's Center for Children with AIDS. Disguise artist Jack turns up in a Santa suit when delivering his idiosyncratic brand of justice to this particular criminal (who thinks and talks in comic-book argot), takes a bullet in his ten-ply vest under the Santa jacket, and returns the gifts to the dying kids. Then his main squeeze, Gia, asks him to help the Center's pediatrician, Dr. Alicia Clayton, whose lawyer has just been assassinated in an exploding Lexus. Alicia is beset by her balmy half-brother Thomas, who wants to keep possession of their late father's two-story brownstone in Murray Hill and apparently doesn't think that Alicia and her lawyer are too high a price to pay, while all Alicia wants is to donate the house as an AIDS branch office. Jack, by the way, likes his jokes, one time seemingly biting out a man's eye, then spitting it onto a windshield. In fact, his joy is ever to be one up on the evil-doers, relishing the agonies of the corrupt and disadvantaged. Back to Capra, though: at the Center, tough Jack falls for tiny Hector, whose immune system is failing rapidly. And as for the house, what secret does it hold that makes it worth the $4 million that Thomas offers Alicia for it? Could it be a transmitter, invented by Alicia's dad, to broadcast power and keep bulbless lamps lighted with only tiny receivers in a surge of wireless electricity? Ah, a legacy worthmuch more than four mil.... All very amusing. Wilson's fans won't be disappointed.

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