Jon F. Merz

I've read "first novels" and "early effort books" who's author's poor grammatical skills are ammended by their ability to tell a good story and produce characterization strong enough to involve the reader in spite of the book's faults. For such promising novels, I can excuse sentence structure like "I knew your reaction would be worth coming out in this miserable rain for" and I can forgive an occasional lazy redundancy of word choice found in a sentence like " Her hips ground in to my face as she rode my face..."

Unfortunately, In my opinion, the Fixer by Jon F. Merz is not such a novel. The character "Lawson" is presented to the reader as a seasoned covert operative. He is a vampire born of a race of vampires who coexist in the shadow of humanity as a separate and hidden species. Lawson's task as a fixer for the ( Vampire) council, is to police the activities of vampires who may reveal their species existence to mankind with the usual consequences - The much higher numbered human population would seek to "destroy all monsters" and upset the "Balance" between vampire predator and human prey.
I don't consider this premise to be terribly original. The Fixer was published in 2002, and as an avid reader and film fan, I'd come across this underground vampire society concept well before it was popularized by the novels of Ann Rice in the 1980s. ( Even the Blade franchise follows a similar vein)
But even a less than original premise can be excused if the story works and the characters are strong. Frankly, I've read along happily as well defined characters surmount the duel obstacles of poor plotting and flimsy world building to conclude a novel that shouldn't work technically, but does evoke empathy in the reader.

My dissatisfaction with the FIXER is rooted in my view that the protagonist is not believable. ( And let's face it a readers of vampire novels have well flexed suspension- of- disbelief muscles ) I cannot accept Lawson as a centenarian, vampire with a human's life-time as a black Ops veteran in the face his sloppy detective work, poor operative decisions,( He readily tells love interest Talya, a human, that their mutual quarry is a vampire) and well... his constant whining. On several occasion during the first person narrative, Lawson describes himself as reacting "like a fourteen year old boy" to Talya. I find this to be an apt description of Lawson's behavior in general. Lawson's background and training is given as lengthy, Marine/special forces tough, dangerous and intensive. But for all of his training Lawson doesn't seem to know what to do in a tight spot and allows situations to worsen through his own failure to deliver. He repeatedly allows himself to be distracted and taken unawares by Talya and others. His approaches to his suspects are conducted with an admitted lack of skill, and little viable reason is given for these outrages breaches of form in so highly trained an operative.

As the book continues and the missteps mount, Lawson's descriptions of his training and career come across as mere braggadocio, rather than expository character development.
Of course, as in any novel, the protagonist can't succeed in his mission at this first attempts. ( that is if the book is to exceed 43 pages). However, in my opinion, ineptitude on the part of the main protagonist as a plot driver is a cop-out on the part of the author. It reveals a lack of skill and imagination. Which are essential attributes to a horror/ fantasy novelist.

It's possible that the author wished to give Lawson and air of vulnerability. Perhaps even an element of humanity, by making him fallible. As Lawson repeatedly admits his fear of Cosgrove, I surmise, that this main antagonist character was meant to seem that much more menacing. He, Cosgrove, must be truly dangerous if a bad-ass such as Lawson could be frightened by him. Again, this might work if Lawson was convincingly bad-ass. Or if Cosgrove were less of a standard "trying to take over the (vampire) world" megalomaniac so common to comic books and daytime soap operas. Ultimately, I found that in the Fixer the author, through the character Lawson, talks a good game, but fails to deliver convincing characterization and good plotting.

There are several more books in this series and I see very good Amazon reviews for these as well as the Fixer. I troubled myself to find and purchase The Fixer, which is currently out of print, hoping to find a gem and read the entire series. I Will not now purchase the remaining books.

Although it is possible that, in later books, the author mended the mistakes of the first novel I find too little promise in the Fixer to drive my actions forward to purchase the next books.… (mehr)

This book has a nice "old school" vibe to it, hailing back to times when vampires were more the monster than the supermodel. Not that the vampires in The Fixer don't have the same powers- speed, able to control minds and strength. I like that the main character doesn't try to explain what he is, he just IS what he is. And what he does is catch those who step out of line and try to destroy the balance between humans and vampires.

If you don't like a lot of pretty werewolves in your vampire stories, you might give this one a try.… (mehr)