Fatal Error

This riveting supernatural thriller, billed as the penultimate novel in Wilson's long-running Repairman Jack saga (Ground Zero, etc.), finds Jack, a principled mercenary who lives off the grid, still tussling with the evil Order of Septimus, whose members hope to open the door to a malignant occult force known as the Otherness. To do so, they partner with several techno-terrorist cults to shut down the Internet, which further serves the interests of Jack's nemesis, the sinister Mr. Osala, who's grooming a newborn child tainted with the Otherness to play an adversarial role in the events unfolding. Wilson gives his multilayered plot an invigorating aura of cosmic creepiness as he deftly weaves together subplots and themes that have been snaking their way through the past dozen novels. Fans who've been following this series for the past quarter-century will be pleased to find that it still abounds with ingenuity and surprises. (Oct.)