For me, one of the most pleasurable moments in life is finding a new continuing character, one whose author has already penned a dozen or so books so that I can get happily lost within the world of this new found friend.  Such a situation happened in 2007 during a difficult weekend that I desperately needed an escape from.  The character was Repairman Jack, the book, The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson.

The reason for my needing an escape was my wife Jennifer who at the time was waiting for a lung transplant.  The two of us had been married less than a year earlier and in my mind it seemed like that marriage was just about to end because Jen seemed incredibly unhappy, unhappy to the point where she would make great changes to her life in an attempt to find happiness, which, of course, was never there.  A year later she did divorce me, though for some reason she chose to do this when things were going really well between us and completely caught me off guard with the decision, one which I still struggle with to this day.

Jen’s unhappiness led to her asking (ordering?) me to leave the apartment and move back in with my parents, which, of course, I didn’t want to do, but knowing you can’t really argue with someone in that state of mind, did.  While there I decided to start a book I had bought earlier that year titled The Tomb, which was by an author I had only seen on the shelf but never read.  Little did I know I was about to discover my all time favorite continuing character, one who I desperately and looking forward to reading about again once the next F. Paul Wilson book is published.

Written in the eighties but updated for the nineties when it became clear he was going to continue the character of Repairman Jack, the novel The Tomb is the story of a Hindu man whose grandmother has been robbed of a precious necklace who must hire Repairman Jack to find it for him.  Little does Jack know this isn’t going to be a simple find the necklace and let the issue fade away type case, and further, how it will connect to another case he is working that will hopefully re-unite him with his girlfriend Gia, who, of course, wants nothing to do with his chosen profession but decides to ask his help in locating a missing family member.  

This relationship struggle between Jack and Gia felt very personal to me at the time due to my situation with Jen, but wasn’t the only reason I have fallen in love with this character.  The books are wonderful and are kind of a like a blend between two of my favorite genera’s: private investigator and supernatural thriller, with a little bit of alternative religion and history thrown in for flavor.

Now also titled Rakoshi due to reasons one will discover while reading the book, The Tomb is one of the best books I have ever read and should have a place on the bookshelf of every horror fan.  Even if you aren’t a horror fan, you should grab this book, because once you get to know Repairman Jack you won’t care what genera this book is and will just want to know and follow his life story.