Cold City (Repairman Jack: Early Years Trilogy)
Readers who might be tempted to cry “enough already with Repairman Jack!”—those for whom 15 novels are plenty, not to mention three Teen Jack books—might be dismayed to learn that this is the first in a new trilogy about the fix-it man, whose projects usually wind up involving him in life-or-death battles with evil (or perhaps that should be Evil). But never fear: this tale, set in 1990 and chronicling Jack’s early adventures in New York City, is more entertaining than the series has been in quite awhile. Its prose is refreshingly nimble, not lumbered by the extensive backstory that weighs down other books in the series, and Jack himself—a younger, less experienced version of the familiar character—is likable and even kind of goofy. It goes without saying that rabid Jack fans will snap this new book up, but it can also be safely recommended to readers who have grown tired of the increasingly dark and impenetrable Jack novels. A breath of fresh air for a long-running crime-fiction franchise. --David Pitt