A new Repairman Jack came out within the last week or so, and I timed it perfectly. I just finished INFERNAL, the last entry in the series, and I enjoyed it.

It was different, to be sure. Most Repairman Jack books have a lot of action in them. Jack fixes problems, often quite violently, and he is a man of action. These problems often seem to circle back to this mysterious entity known as the "Otherness", which appears to be manipulating events surrounding Jack and others. Jack, however, has become aware of this battle, through a series of occurrences.

However, in INFERNAL, Jack seems to be along for the ride more than acting against the force. It starts out with Arab terrorists gunning down all of the passengers waiting for bags at an airport baggage claim carousel, and they've used cyanide tipped bullets to make sure there are no survivors. Jack's father was coming to visit him and happened to be on that plane.

Jack wants vengeance, but puts it on hold when his brother Tom appeals to his sense of family and to his father's memory to help him in getting some money he has stashed in Bermuda. See, Tom is a very corrupt judge, and behaves like total slime 95% of the time. He's in legal trouble, being pursued by the Feds, and is running out of time.

When they get to Bermuda, Tom finds his accounts frozen and he can't get to his money. So he talks Jack into going on a treasure hunt for a mythical ancient artifact called the Lilitongue of Gefreda. He doesn't know what it is but knows that it's supposed to have the power to place the user out of his enemies' way. If nothing else, it's an archaeological find that could be worth a fortune.

The Lilitongue was "buried at sea" purposely in the 16th century (I think) by a servant of the Pope, and the hope was that it would never be seen by the eyes of man again. And for good reason. It's a very dangerous object.

Jack does get a little bit of vengeance on "The Wrath Of Allah" but somehow to the reader it's unsatisfying, and I feel certain that we will see more of this group in the next book, HARBINGERS, or before the series ends. Mostly Jack reacts to Tom and to the Lilitongue itself. Even the woman with the dog who seems to be the harbinger of trouble reveals herself, but not to Jack - to Tom, who doesn't understand the significance of the woman.

I felt that the book was more of a transitional volume, preparing us for the events to come in future books. Because of this I can't give it my best rating. But as part of the overall Repairman Jack story arc, I was satisfied.