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INFERNAL by F. Paul Wilson

INFERNAL

by F. Paul Wilson

Pub Date: Nov. 1st, 2005
ISBN: 0-765-31275-1
Publisher: Forge

Anonymous hero goes through some family issues, recovers treasure, fights terrorism.

Repairman Jack lives off the grid under an assumed name and does a lot of off-the-books “repair” work, through exactly how and why is not spelled out in Wilson’s ninth entry in the series (Crisscross, 2004, etc.). Jack, who has a nice little Manhattan life going with the lovely Gia and doesn’t want more complications than his shady work already offers, is awaiting the arrival of his retiree father, who’s flying up from Florida for some quality family time. But a terrorist attack at LaGuardia leaves Jack’s father dead and Jack scouring his network of reprobate acquaintances to find out who was behind the attack. His father’s funeral brings Jack into unwilling contact with his brother Tom, a Philadelphia judge who—with his ex-wives, drug and alcohol problems and extremely lax attitude about bribes—is an even less upstanding character than Jack. Tom ropes Jack into taking a ride on a boat to Bermuda in order to withdraw some funds that Tom had stashed away in a bank there. Along the way—just maybe—they’ll look for lost Spanish treasure marked on a map that fell into Tom’s hands. Then it’s back to New York, where they need to deal with those terrorists.

Some things work (especially the well-rendered brotherly relationship), but a lot (such as Jack’s joyfully racist mafioso buddy Joey) fails to connect.