Double threat

In 1976, Wilson published his first novel, Healer, a story about a planetary surveyor who acquires an alien passenger in his brain and becomes humankind's only defense against an intergalactic threat. Wilson's new book is a full rewrite of that novel, recasting Healer's centuries-old male protagonist, Dalt, as Daley, a 26-year-old woman, and resetting the story on Earth in the present day. Pard, the unwanted in-brain visitor, is virtually unchanged (a lot of his dialogue is almost word-for-word from the original), but Wilson builds a new and more compelling story around him. Daley is a more interesting character than Dalt, and certainly the real-world setting makes Daley's story line feel more immediate than Dalt's far-future intergalactic odyssey. Wilson has grown considerably as a writer, too, and Double Threat includes some of his best writing. This is clearly a story that is special to him, and it's nice to see him taking another run at it. A really satisfying novel.

Con artist Stanka Daley, the heroine of this whimsical supernatural thriller from bestseller Wilson (the Repairman Jack series), takes refuge from the victims of her latest scam in a California desert cave, where she loses consciousness upon encountering a slug-like creature that soon melds its mind with her own. Back home in L.A., Daley begins to hear the creature in her head and orders it to leave, but it tells her it can't and to call him Pard. After Pard displays healing powers by repairing her arm that was mangled in an accident, Daley decides they should go into the healing business. Meanwhile, people are going hysterical and catatonic for no reason, bizarre earthquakes are occurring, and in the desert town of Nespodee Springs the wealthy Pendry clan is waiting for the stars to align in order to open a portal that will allow ancient alien visitors to once again return to Earth. When Daley and Pard coincidentally arrive in Nespodee Springs to set up shop, events begin to converge. With Daley and Pard, Wilson has created two of his most memorable and delightful characters. Readers will eagerly await the promised sequel. (June)