Repairman Jack

By F. Paul Wilson

The New York Times–bestselling author of The Keep tells the real and fictional origins of the mysterious man who battles criminals and the supernatural.

In 1984, Repairman Jack debuted in F. Paul Wilson’s horror thriller The Tomb. Jack would go on to star in twenty-three novels, ten short stories, and a graphic novel. But how did the antithesis of James Bond and Jason Bourne get his start in the battle between good and evil?

In this essay, Wilson lets his readers in on how his beloved hero came to be. Wilson begins his personal story after he scored a hit with The Keep, when he found his inspiration for his next book in a dream. He discusses selecting and researching a monster, as well as developing Jack, his supporting cast, and settling on a villain. He also shares how the first title in the series came to be—it wasn’t always The Tomb. Wilson closes with Jack’s fictional backstory and his thoughts on Jack’s potential future—if there is one . . .

Praise for Repairman Jack

“One of the all-time great characters in one of the all-time great series.” —Lee Child, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

“Repairman Jack is one of the most original and intriguing characters to arise out of contemporary fiction in ages. His adventures are hugely entertaining.” —Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Strangers

• Language: English
• Publisher: MysteriousPress.com Open Road
• Release date: May 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781504084673

F. Paul Wilson

F. Paul Wilson is a New York Times bestselling author specializing in thriller, science fiction and horror. He won the Prometheus award in 1979 and 2004, as well as a special Prometheus Lifetime Achievement award in 2015.

Book preview

Repairman Jack

A Mysterious Profile

F. Paul Wilson

Author’s Note

This profile contains spoilers toward the end. If you’ve read the series, these won’t matter. If you’ve picked this up out of curiosity, by all means read it and familiarize yourself with Jack. I’ll warn you when the spoilers begin.

Repairman Jack

It all started—for the character, at least—with a simple ad in The Village Voice, placed without his knowledge by a friend:

When all else fails …

When nothing else works …

REPAIRMAN JACK

He wouldn’t have chosen that name himself, but it has stuck through twenty-three novels, ten short stories, and a graphic novel. 

For the writer who dreamed him up, however, it started, appropriately enough, with a nightmare.

NIGHTMARE

The year was 1982 and I was struggling with a new novel to follow The Keep. Not a sequel; an unrelated supernatural horror novel. But it wasn’t working. All the parts were there but they didn’t gel. My fellow writers will understand the situation. It’s like being Frankenstein in the James Whale film: You’ve assembled all the parts but where’s the lightning? Day after day the damn skies remain clear, denying you that life-giving electric jolt.

Around this time I had a dream in which I was being chased across a rooftop by some nameless creature. The damn thing wanted to tear me up; nothing I did to defend myself or defeat it worked. Sort of like my work in progress. 

Obviously a frustration dream. I awoke feeling emotionally and physically drained and knew I couldn’t let that scene go. I had to use it somewhere. It had no place in the current project, so I’d have to come up with a new story. I decided to put the stalled book aside—not a wrenching decision since it wasn’t going anywhere anyway—and make a fresh start on something new. (I came back to it a half dozen years or so later, saw what it needed, and rewrote is as Reborn.)

The big challenge of the new book was not so much coming up with a story to incorporate that rooftop scene—story has never been a problem for me—but finding a character who could survive the encounter, someone better equipped than yours truly. To quote Bonnie Tyler …

I NEED A HERO

With a baker’s dozen films making James Bond a household name, and black ops agents like Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne dominating the bestseller charts, I could have simply modeled my hero on