Review: A unique and powerful hero. With fangs
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 26, 2011
I picked up The Fixer for my kindle after author Jon Merz talked about the Lawson books on Twitter. I haven't read anything by him before, but after this I will be reading more.  An excellent, fast-paced thriller.I'm not specifically into vampires, but in the past year I have read several books with distinctive takes on the vampire legend.  This is one of them.  In this case, the vampire stuff is a constant backdrop, but it's really more of a hard-edged crime novel than anything else.  Merz' dialogue is what shines the most - the back and forth is a mixture of one-liners and more extensive dialogue that are perfectly done and keep the pace frantic.The writing is good beyond the dialogue as well, and he keeps a good balance between the thrilling part of the book and the Romantic tension between Lawson and the female lead. I suspect vampiricism is the reason he pulls it off. The plot is interesting as well, with a few twists as the book goes along.If I had to name a complaint, it would be that the time spent on backstory - both for Lawson in particular and for vampires in general - slowed the book down. He needed to tell us most of it, but I did occasionally feel the urge to look forward when we switched from action to something about the vampire council. That is a minor concern at best - I would not have given the book four stars if I didn't like it a lot and feel comfortable recommending it to anyone who likes vampire stories that aren't heavy on gore, or likes action/crime stories and doesn't mind the vampire twist.