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All Rage

by F. Paul Wilson
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Product Details

  • Publisher: Tor Books
  • Publishing date: 14/10/2001
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-13: 9780812566543
  • ISBN: 0812566548

Synopsis

Reading a Repairman Jack novel seems, at times, a guilty pleasure; it's astonishingly easy to inhale the pages, like eating potato chips. A firm-jawed Mr. Fixit hero with a cryptic past--crunch! Crimes that go beyond (way, waaay beyond) the norms of traditional law--smack! A liberal sprinkling of screwball comedy and nasty supernatural beings--now that's tasty! Good, crispy fun, indeed. But F. Paul Wilson's tight plotting and appealing characters manage to elevate potato chips to the realm of haute cuisine (or at least a satisfyingly solid meal), and his latest, All the Rage, is no exception.

Everything's rosy when Nadia Radzminsky takes a dream research job at GEM Pharmaceuticals: she'll be working for her professional idol, Dr. Luc Monnet; her fiancé is one of GEM's top salespeople; she's got all sorts of high tech toys to play with; and she'll get a million-dollar bonus if she can just figure out how to stabilize GEM's most promising molecule (dubbed, ominously enough for students of Norse mythology, Loki). But clouds quickly appear on the horizon in the form of Milos Dragovic, a Serbian mobster with a short fuse, a big wallet, and a profound interest in Loki's future. Nadia suspects Milos is blackmailing her boss, and she hires Jack to find out what's going on.

What Jack finds out isn't pretty: Loki is leading an underground life as Berzerk, a hot, new street drug that brings out the user's most aggressive behavior, frequently with deadly consequences. And Milos may be pushing Monnet around, but the good doctor isn't objecting too strongly to the payoff. But when Jack gets closer to the source of the mystery molecule, events take a very personal turn: Loki is derived from the blood of rakoshi, those otherworldly and decidedly vicious demons Jack had sworn to exterminate in Conspiracies. With his family threatened by both the rakoshi and the vengeful Serb, Jack must take on both the monster and the mob.

All the Rage has the necessary ingredients for success, including a snarkily amusing subplot involving a Brooklyn junkyard owner who's also out for Milos's blood (Jack has to keep toning down his client's eager revenge plots, and his substitution of industrial sludge for knives in one such plan is particularly amusing). Dedicated Wilson fans will rejoice in the new addition to the series, and neophytes will scramble to unearth the earlier installments. --Kelly Flynn


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  • what is Bezerk ?
    From Amazon

    BOOK 4 DR. Nadia R works for GEM Pharmaceuticals & her boyfriend is their computer expert. There is a new drug on the street called Bezerk and Nadia thinks GEM has something to do with it. Gia & Vicki are almost killed by some one on the drug. While Jack is investigating Bezerk he is also helping another client bring a gangster to justice. Now Nadia's boyfriend is missing. Jacks search for him will bring him in contact with the RAKOSHI again. He also meets OZ PRATHER. (Oz is in 2 other books Wilson has written). Will Jack be able to save the day?

  • Excellent series!
    From Amazon

    While All the Rage didn't grab me and drag me in the immediately the way The Tomb, the first book in the Repairman Jack series did, I stuck with it and was glad I did. We get to learn more about Repairman Jack and the people in his lives. I would certainly recommend this series to anyone searching for something a little different.

  • What's not to love about Repairman Jack?
    From Amazon

    What can you say about Repairman Jack? No, seriously - I wish I knew someone like Repairman Jack. I have a couple of ex-husbands... We could all use a Repairman Jack in our lives.

  • Entertaining novel - but Jack is a pretty incompetent action hero
    From Amazon

    This was my first foray into the Repairman Jack series and I have to say it was an entertaining ride. The plot is convoluted (in a good way) filled not so much with plot twists, as with hairpin turns. Wilson manages to keep a number of balls in the air as he juggles multiple story lines that criss cross each other again and again. This is a plot driven suspense novel, so the reader should be prepared to suspend belief a little. The characters serve the plot. They are game pieces being moved around by the author. Fans may not agree with me, but as a first time reader of the series, I have to say Repairman Jack is a little lacking as an action hero. I was perplexed by his incompetence. First off, he charges a substantial fee for a pretty mundane job (a young medical researcher is worried her boss may be in trouble with a Serbian mobster and wants Jack to look into it). As it turns out (of course) the job is not as mundane as it first appears - but Jack doesn't know this when he accepts it and charges the big fee for his special talents. And what services does Jack offer for this fee? An embarrassingly low-tech surveilance of the researcher's boss and the mobster. No background searches, no computer work, no surveillance equipment - nothing (not even photographs or a sound recording). Jack doesn't even have employees to do some of the surveillance work so he has to alternate following the two targets. Later in the novel, Jack torments the Serbian crime lord with a series of practical jokes that are so environmentally irresponsible that it boggles the mind. These pranks also recklessly endanger some innocent bystanders. Of course the author ensures that no innocents are injured (at least not seriously) and the pranks work out perfectly. The positive outcome is a contrivance of the author and should in no way be used as evidence of Repairman Jack's competence. Another case in point: Jack's girlfriend and her daughter are potential targets of the Serbian mobster. Jack's plan to protect them consists of smashing into the mobster henchmen's car while wearing a fake moustache (a move that only seems to reinforce the notion that the henchmen are on the right track by spying on the woman) and then telling his girlfriend to stay in her house and pretend not to be home. It doesn't seem to occur to him that they might decide to get out of their car at some point and break into her house. I know if my wife and child were home alone with a pair of killers parked at the curb, I'd want to plan for that contingency. I have no idea how Jack knew to bring 4 knives to a meeting he had no way of knowing would happen, but the real contrivance is the outcome of the meeting. Jack's plan relied on a rather improbable outcome. It was much more likely that one man would be left standing after the knives were drawn but again the author's contrivance compensates for Jack's poorly conceived plan. And finally, when it comes time to do battle with a supernatural creature in the woods, Jack is about as effective as poodle fighting a lion. I won't spoil the ending for the reader, but let's just say that if Jack lives to fight another day, it isn't because he had a clever plan or used his sharply honed skills as a slayer of monsters. But I digress.... The bottom line is, All the Rage is an entertaining, fast paced, periodically amusing supernatural thriller. I can only hope that Jack is more competent in his other novels.

  • The Ragin' Repairman!
    From Amazon

    My wife and I found F. Paul Wilson's 4th Repairman Jack novel a utterly terrific and fresh read from start to finish. Bravo, Mr. Wilson, bravo! Although readers can read any of the Repairman Jack novels as stand alone novels, it is more preferable to read them in order to get the 'full effect'. All 4 novels we've read thus far in the now 10-book series has been 1st rate reading. The sheer brilliance of F. Paul Wilson is the feeling my wife and I get with every novel we read as to Jack's slowly but ever-unfolding mystery. Is Jack more than what he appears? What exactly is the Otherness? And will Jack be somehow linked to it? We think so. All the Rage brings back the lone creature survivor called the Rakoshi from the thrilling 1st book - The Tomb. There are many twists and thrills in this adventure, from alien blood-fueled anabolic steroids to carny characters that are a treat to read. When Jack accidently drinks the super-steroid called Bezerk, his maniac state transforms him into a killing machine. From slaying Serbian hitmen and running from the Law, the pages burn with energy. Never dull, never boring. The ending is utterly cool, with Jack persuing the creature alone in the Pine Barrens. Can't tell you how glad my wife and I are at finding this fantastic series by one of the most talented writers out there today. It is small wonder why these books are hugely popular. How is it that Hollywood hasn't made a Repairman Jack movie? And we wonder who the reader fan base would like to see play Jack. Brad Pitt? Read any or all of the Repairman Jack novels. They are all of that and a bucket of chicken thus far.

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