Conspiracies (Hardcover)

Repairman Jack is hired to find missing conspiracy-theorist Melanie Ehler, who has vanished mere days before she was slated to unveil GUT (Grand Unification Theory), her theory which would unite almost ALL conspiracy theories under ONE gigantic all-encompassing plot against humanity. Melanie's Husband, Lew, is moved to hire Jack after being contacted by the missing Melanie....as a voice coming through the television while Lew is watching The Weather Channel. Jack is soon up to his neck in crackpots as he infiltrates an annual Conspiracy convention (Which provides some BIG laughs to offset the novel's growing sense of menace), and if he ever manages to sift through all of the disparate theories, he just may find himself head-to-head with a VERY familiar baddie....

Conspiracies marks a Grand Unification of a different sort, as Wilson ties Jack more firmly into the mythology of his six-book Adversary Saga, as well as some of his many excellent short stories. Knowledge of his short stories isn't necessary (Although readers familiar with the town of Monroe, the gateway in the New Jersy Pine Barrens, and disfigured serial-killer Carly will be tickled at the sly winks to those and other stories), but I think at least a working knowledge of The Adversay Saga (The Keep, The Tomb, The Touch, Reborn, Reprisal, and Nightworld) is needed to fully grasp the weight and importance of the story. I'm not sure I would have been satisfied with the ending if I hadn't read the other books already. For this avid F. Paul Wilson fan, Cnspiracies is his best book yet, and luckily, there's much more Repairman Jack to come.

Now, for those of you who haven't read the Adversary Cycle stories, I can certainly understand your confusion and feeling that this story was incomplete. Let me fill in some of the gaps...first of all, the main antagonist of the story is Sal Roma. In the story, Sal refers to himself as the Chosen One several times and though the story makes no direct statement as to his true name, a bit of simple logic will show that this is really Rasalom (Sal Roma = Rasalom), the evil immortal introduced in The Keep. His attempts to control the earth have been going on since The Keep, and his eternal struggle with the forces of good (represented by the equally immortal warrior Glaeken) is the substance of the Adversary Cycle. Second, the town where the missing lady was living is the setting of Reborn. In fact, the events surrounding her birth are the events of Rasalom's rebirth in Reborn. Finally, the 'other world' that opens up at the end of the story may seem odd and unexplained. However, it makes a great deal of sense if you've read Nightworld. In Nightworld, literally hundreds of these portals are opened to the other world hinted at in Conspiracies. Not only are these portals explained more thoroughly, but we get to see first hand what sort of things live in that other world.

Bottom line is that this story really can't be seen as a stand-alone story. It's a part of a much larger story that Jack plays a part in, with the ultimate answers to this story being given in later volumes like Nightworld. Even though this book doesn't directly answer many of the questions posed in it, Conspiracies does succeed as a story arc leading back to the rest of the Adversary Cycle.

If you read this book as a stand-alone story, you're really missing the best of what Dr. Wilson has written. Read the entire Adversary Cycle. You'll be very very glad you did.