Rating: 
Summary: Coulda been a contender but...
Review: ...it's all been done before. Merz's "Fixer" is just an awkward hybrid of James Bond and Vampire the Masquerade. Predictable plotline with a lot of one-dimentional characters and some campy silliness thrown in. A fluffy airplane read, but that's about it. If you're looking for serious vampire gumshoes, gangsters and secret agents, then I recommend Keeper of the King by P.N. Elrod and Nigel Bennet, The Vampire Files by P.N. Elrod or just go with the Anita Blake series.
Rating: 
Summary: LOADS OF FUN
Review: Dark nights, funky bars, guns, lust and longing, sudden death...Bogart with fangs! WOW this is a lot of fun. A little willing suspension of disbelief goes a long, long way. I lovingly refer to this kind of book as an "airplane" read, because it's just such flat-out escapism. Noir basted with vampire lore and horror. Try it, you'll like it. Merz is here to stay.
Rating: 
Summary: Secret Agent Vampire
Review: Each time I think that I have seen every possible variation on the idea of vampires, someone comes along to prove me wrong. I have seen monster vampires, sex object vampires, vampires with and without souls, vampire gangsters and detectives. However, this is my first secret agent. Not that vampires would not be well suited for sneaking around and doing wet work. But, Jon Merz has gone one step further and created a whole new breed of vampires descended from their own personal missing link.Lawson is a fixer, an agent of the Vampire Council. His job is enforcing the rules that keep humans from becoming aware of the pointy teeth people. In Merz's world, vampires are another genetic strain related to human. They have the traditional teeth and a yen for small quantities of whole blood. They are more powerful than humans are, live longer, and must be killed by the standard spike and behead method. All other bets are off. Sunlight, holy water, and garlic do not faze them. They have reflections, and for the most part, they cannot make vampires out of humans. And, they live in little suburban communities, go to vampire schools and grow up to do vampire jobs. Well, most vampires to that. Unfortunately for Lawson, a rogue vampire named Cosgrove is back in Boston and is eating his way through the local population. Lawson's assignment is to terminate Cosgrove. Unexpectedly, he finds himself allied with a human ex-KGB assassin by the name of Talya. For Lawson this introduces a serious problem - the Council does not permit vampires to fall in love with humans. Lawson's other partner is Zero, another vampire and an old friend. Zero helps Lawson discover that Cosgrove not only wants to lunch on people, he is hatching a plot to destroy the council and rule the world. This is the first time I have encountered a well written, but genuinely silly book. The unflagging plot is a high camp hardboiled spy thriller. The vampire lifestyle Merz proposes extraordinarily impossible, for, if vampires were indistinguishable from humans and had even this small set of powers, they would genuinely rule the world. Making the council unnecessary. We humans would never have never been a contender. An odd feature of Merz's writing style is that nobody, not one person, has a first and last name. Without fail, men are referred to by their last name, and ladies by their first. This goes on and one without end. I have no idea whether Merz is being intentionally facetious or if he thought this was serious writing. Actually he is a good writer, but the material he is playing with is short of a full deck. Worse, Merz cheats on his own premises, making the story's plot sometimes advance without even a nod to rhyme or reason. Since it inadvertently lampoons two popular genre to perfection, it has unexpected good qualities. As a result, I am forced to give it a better, or possibly worse, rating than it deserves. If you are a forgiving reader, you will have fun with this. However, if you expect your genre novels to stay in genre, I suggest you pass this one by.
Rating:
Summary: Hard-boiled vampire noir
Review: Fixer is kind of book that you just can't stop reading!Merz's debut novel is awesome dark fantasy adventure with unique and unforgettable hero, Lawson. Lawson is the fixer.Fixers are vampires charged with the duty of executing rogue vampires who break the balance.The Balance is the line between humans and vampires and it's what keeps the world of vampires hidden from humanity.Lawson is great as what he does which is good as he must face again his archenemy, Cosgrove.Cosgrove is a truly evil vampire who seeks to destroy the vampire council raise a vampire god; all in his plot for world domination! Lawson must use all of his wits, strength and agility against enemy who is stronger than him and he is falling in love is human assasin named Talya who also wants to Cosgrove dead! Merz's novel gives us a scenic tour of Boston as our hard-boiled hero with the help of retired, fixer named Zero must stop Cosgrove's conspirary.The plot twists are brilliant as our hero finds that he doesn't know who to trust and including his heart!Merz's action sequences are great as he describes hand to hand combat, chases and some unique weapons.Fixer is also great because the author has the ability to destroy some of the myths concerning vampires like: they are not immortal but they live for centuries and they can walk in daylight.Merz's also does his research into the world of assasins and spies. I want the next Lawson's adventure!
Rating:
Summary: could leave it
Review: Guys will get a thrill, girls would be bored. Editing sucks.
Rating:
Summary: could leave it
Review: Guys will get a thrill, girls would be bored. Editing sucks.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put The Fixer down!
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I'm anxiously awaiting the second book. This is a fun read with some great characters. From the fight scenes to the character dialog I was sucked in.
It's a great perspective and twist on this genre! Should be on the Big screen. Would be a great movie!
Rating:
Summary: Great read.
Review: I picked this book up on the recommedndation of a friend. Good stuff--one of those books you find yourself reading straight for three days then wishing you had taken it slowly. The character of Lawson is a nice new twist on the old Vampire template. This guy would put a cople of bullets through Lestat's head , then rip it off and throw it in the gutter. Check it out if get a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Following the Story both up front and behind the curtain...
Review: I've been reading Jon's column on absolutewrite.com for a few weeks now and felt obligated to buy a book. It isn't one of my preferred genres, so I wasn't sure what to think but I really enjoyed this book. I have to hand it to Jon...this is a fine work to be proud of! And, even if your not a fan of the genre, there is enough to draw you in. Count me as a fan!
Rating:
Summary: A promise not delivered
Review: 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.
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