A Timely Book Review: Doucette's Fixer

"If it ain't broken don't fix it." But that's the problem with the future: It is broken somewhere for someone. Corrigan Bain is a fixer, though, and he's compelled to change that, no matter what.

I am a huge fan of Gene Doucette's writing. Of course, that probably goes without saying, seeing as how I have reviewed three of his novels, including the one in this article. As with Immortal and its sequel Hellenic Immortal, Fixer is at its core about its characters. I mean, sure, it heaps on the story, but the characters are very real, their interactions believable and fluid.

Unlike with the Immortal series, this time around, Doucette chose to adopt a third person point of view. While I preferred the first person narrative of Adam in Immortal, with Fixer I definitely enjoyed getting to see more of the world of Corrigan Bain. It was nice to get to untether from the protagonist long enough to check out the feisty agent Maggie Trent – What is it with this author and redheads, huh? – and her investigation into a string of supposedly accidental and unrelated deaths of a handful of MIT graduates.

Other characters from Bain's cast include lone survivor Erica Smalls and Professor Calvin, a patron figure to replace the father Corrigan has never known. Smalls and Calvin are the brainy characters of the book who explain to the reader the temporal designs behind what we consider to be the past, present, and future. They help to explain, with freshly-minted terms, such as a chronoton, just how it is Corrigan is able to see into the future. Now, I love reading the science and pseudoscience behind things like time travel, warp speed, and the physics of Angry Birds. That said, however, I sometimes need it brought down to a Raymond-level explanation.

Doucette has that part already taken care of in the character of Corrigan Bain. You see, our fixer friend doesn't know the science behind his visions of the future. I don't really even think he cares about all that. All Corrigan is concerned with is fixing the events laid out before him and ensuring the survival of his latest unsuspecting clients. Unfortunately, not everyone can be saved, sometimes there's a miss. That's when things start to get real messy. It's during such times and their aftermath, when Corrigan's deepest fear begins to creep around him. Is Corrigan Bain, in fact, going insane? Well, that's part of the fun of the book, right?

What I can say on the subject is this: If you think Corrigan's sanity is in question in the present, just wait till you see the inhuman and vile thing waiting for him around the bend. It's something Corrigan has tried to ignore since the horrendous events of his childhood: The Kilroy. These things make Stephen King's Langoliers look like a pack of rabid house cats by comparison.

Fixer by Gene Doucette

What would you do if you could see into the future?

As a child, he dreamed of being a superhero. Most people never get to realize their childhood dreams, but Corrigan Bain has come close. He is a fixer. His job is to prevent accidents—to see the future and "fix" things before people get hurt. But the ability to see into the future, however limited, isn't always so simple. Sometimes not everyone can be saved.

"Don't let them know you can see them."

Graduate students from a local university are dying, and former lover and FBI agent Maggie Trent is the only person who believes their deaths aren't as accidental as they appear. But the truth can only be found in something from Corrigan Bain's past, and he's not interested in sharing that past, not even with Maggie.

To stop the deaths, Corrigan will have to face up to some old horrors, confront the possibility that he may be going mad, and find a way to stop a killer no one can see.

Corrigan Bain is going insane … or is he?

Because there's something in the future that doesn't want to be seen. It isn't human. It's got a taste for mayhem. And it is very, very angry.

To order a copy direct from The Writer's Coffee Shop and save a considerable chunk from other sites, click here. There's also a link there to download a sample of the eBook. If you prefer Amazon, here's that link. If you'd like to read more from Gene, you may check out his site at http://genedoucette.me/. If you do snag a copy, then let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.