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The Fixer (Lawson the Fixer #1)

by Jon F. Merz (Goodreads Author)

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 249 ratings · 36 reviews

The members of the Council believe that vampires can coexist with humans. Some vamps disagree. That's where Lawson comes in. He's a Fixer. When a nosferatu gets delusions of grandeur about taking over the world, it's his job to take them out -- with extreme prejudice.

Paperback, 349 pages

Published May 1st 2002 by Pinnacle

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Aug 27, 2012 Grahame rated it 2 of 5 stars

Cliché Yep this book is a collection of clichés. I have to agree with most of he one and two star reviews given previously to this book. The clichés are not so much vampiric as private detective/spy clichés. And I mean every one. Including the ones that contradict each other.

Hero is a 130-year-old vampire but seems to have the mental age of about 23. He is almost irresistible to women when he turns on the vamp magnetic effect. However, confronted either of the two by the female protagonists he a...more Cliché Yep this book is a collection of clichés. I have to agree with most of he one and two star reviews given previously to this book. The clichés are not so much vampiric as private detective/spy clichés. And I mean every one. Including the ones that contradict each other.

Hero is a 130-year-old vampire but seems to have the mental age of about 23. He is almost irresistible to women when he turns on the vamp magnetic effect. However, confronted either of the two by the female protagonists he acts and talks like a 20 something geeky kid.

He works for a seemingly incompetent and ambivalent controller and governing body. Weird arguments with these parties and other characters where the hero ends up holding the shitty end of the stick every time and accepts his lot with a "Oh man this always happened to me." And then pages of maudlin introspection for example; Hero wants villain vamp to be targeted. After resistance and inaction the vamp council agree and gives him the job. He then says this is bad as this guy is hard to take. So they offer him extra crew to help. He turns it down because.....wait for it"...........grand cliché …ta da………….cue music…. HE ALWAYS WORKS ALONE!!!!! So they say fine get on with it. Then he is sad about being under appreciated and used because he has to take on super vamp on his own?????????????? . (Which I am sure is what he wanted, no demanded.) Then enter many pages of the maudlin introspection.

Puke. This is only one of the many classic detective assassin clichés that you get bombarded with. Are you getting sick of me using the word cliché yet? Well you should be and you will be getting the idea about the book. The clichés are mixed in with these ridiculous circular arguments and also amazing (read ridiculous) insights to the detective and assassin role and equally amazing insights from his mentor the great Zero “Didn’t I tell you hotel rooms are often traps?”

His control is useless being disinterested and lazy and just plain dumb. Okay the controls are ex agents given the role due to their good service. So how did this one get through the years of agent training and then live and succeed through hundreds of years of being an agent and then end up fat dumb and happy? After hero gets his but handed to him for the second time he is convalescing in hospital. Control visits him. Hero asks for a bodyguard while he recovers. Control thinks it is not necessary!!!!! Then comes one of those whiney circular arguments. Explaining anything to control is like teaching algebra to a dog. Also Hero also isn’t good at explaining being a maudlin cliché factory.

The author seems to have meticulously researched theses insights of the detective assassin genre by watching movies and reading crap novels of the genre have. In fact I think this book is a classic Mickey Malone detective novel from the 1940s with a vampire element thrown in, but not as good.

His amazing detective ability leads him to stake out a city nightclub because, well nightclubs are super vamps usual hunting grounds. There are probably a hundred nightclubs in the city but he guesses right first time and that very night the bad boy turns up. Man what are the odds? I mean couldn’t the author have even a simple device like a tip off? Nope. Just go to one and the bad boy strolls right in. Lazy.

He has trained for years and has 30 years actual "fixer" experience yet his fantastic skills seem to be in the leaping in the air while wielding a weapon (loosely wielding because they usually get taken off him early in the fight) variety rather than in locating and eliminating the target variety. To locate the target in his world you just seem to go somewhere on a hunch and wait about 5 minutes and target will appear. Of course he then has no workable plan so everything comes down to a chasing around jumping in windows while the super vamp makes taunts about taking over the world.

Then he meets a beautiful female ex KGB assassin. The clichés here are hip deep. She is beautiful and has been trained in everything by everyone. She has worked in every cold war battleground as an assassin. During the Soviet Afghan war she took out a 14-man Afghan guerrilla team that the Soviet Army could not catch one by one. Man! Teenage wet dream. Again her training also leads her to use the same hopeless strategy the hero does. Man that KGB assassin training must have sucked. No wonder they lost the cold war.

This book was a bunch of clichés put in a box and shaken up.

Enough!!!!!!!!! Get the sample before you buy
(less)

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Aug 15, 2011 Dark Haven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed The Fixer. It’s not just a vampire novel. It’s a hybrid containing the paranormal world of vampires and the hard edge suspense and feel of a good detective novel. Think of Sam Spade with fangs and you’ve got the general idea.

The story starts off quickly and is fast paced throughout. Cosgrove is a wonderful protagonist and the supporting cast was equally as good. The introduction of the romantic interest in the novel was very believable and the author did a good job maintaining the sex...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Dorothy rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 s...more 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.(less)

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Jul 11, 2011 Dusty Craine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've really been putting this review off. I've had several exchanges with the author via Twitter and I like him based on our interactions but this book was just not my style.

The premise is interesting enough. Vampires walk among us, don't adhere to many of the stereotypes associated with them - they can be out during the day, they can't turn into bats or smoke, etc. But they do exist and humanity cannot know about them. Knowing would affect the balance. It would produce mass hysteria and likely...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Marsha rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Adult Paranormal Romance Lovers

After reading "Dead Drop" I was really looking forward to "The Fixer." While I enjoyed it, I found this installment was slow due to the character's constant reminiscing over his past and sometimes it really didn't add important background information key to the plot. It was just filler.

In "The Fixer," Lawson, vampire, spy, and assassin discovers that his old nemesis, Cosgrove is back in town. Cosgrove refuses to play by the rules of the vampire council and on his last visit he killed over 50 hum...more

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Apr 08, 2011 Rebekah (Silver Lily) James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anyone who knows me can tell you I don't generally like the newest wave in vampire novels, so how did Lawson, the central figure in this series, who is very much a vampire, end up being my newest literary crush? Because even if Lawson wasn't a vampire, he would still be interesting.

The Fixer is the first in this series. I admit, I was pulled in by one of the latest books - Kensei which is several books later in the series, but now that I have discovered it I have downloaded the rest of them as...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Radella rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a story with the works- a KGB trained assassin, an arch nemesis hell-bent on resurrecting ancient evil in a bid for total world domination, love, betrayal, and a healthy dose of fighting. And did I mention vampires?
Lawson is a vampire, and his job as a fixer is all about preserving the balance between human and vampire. Of course, the vampires don’t want the humans to know about their existence. So when the psychotic Cosgrove shows up in Boston, Lawson tries to take him out. Things go si...more

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May 05, 2012 Anachronist rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: those-pesky-three-stars

Synopsis:

When a bad, big, psychotic vampire called Cosgrove returns to Chicago, one thing is sure: there will be blood and murders galore. Cosgrove doesn’t disappoint his faithful allies and enemies - soon enough the Council, a body supervising all vampires living in that area, condemn him to death. Any death but the sooner the better. Lawson, one of vampire Fixers (so kind of law enforcers) and his Control (so kind of boss) McKinley are given the order to find Cosgrove and drive something made...more

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Feb 12, 2011 Joe Hempel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-books-in-2011

If I were to go on story alone, I would give this book 4 stars. But formatting plays an important part in an eBook, and there was just so much that was poorly formatted that I can't overlook that. It was like I purchased a pirated copy, with odd line breaks, chapters that jumped from 2 to 19...the chapters are there, just regular text inside paragraphs so you HAVE to search for it and edit the book yourself. Also there are question marks at certain points that didn't seem to belong...and it jus...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Kat rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Vampires. Vampires keeping the "balance". Think secret organizations creating a special unit to keep the organization a secret.
The whole plot was pretty promising.
I just started to get annoyed with things getting repeated.
Like how Mr. Lawson "feels like he's 15" (repeated twice) and then "he feels like he's 14" (I thought you said 15, sir). How he goes on over and over again about Talya. It got to a point that I'm definitely sure that someone tried to "kick him in the groin", but "he deflected"...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Fallon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, paranormal, series, vampire

This book was originally released in 2002 and this cover is a lot better than the original. I digress, Lawson is a vampire, I didn't really realize this was going to be a vampire book, but the vampire aspect isn't the lure we typically think of. They are an evolution of humans, they need human blood but aren't allowed to kill them and those who do, or those who break other rules set by the council, are met upon by fixers. Lawson is the fixer for the Boston area which happens to be the capital of...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Marina rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: vampires

I'm not crazy for this book!

The first thing I'd like to mention is that I didn't like the narrator at all!!! All this "I" and "I" and "I" was so appalling to me that half the time I'd like to smack Lawson in the face!!!!

Plus I think for an assasin he was quite hardheaded, little slow with the ongoing developments if it wasn't for his friend Zero he still be looking like an idiot. And Talya....I'm not feeling this super-girl (she is like Vadim with boobs).

The conspiracy theory was good, the rais...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Onne Andrews rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Basically, think James Bond with fangs. Mr. Merz adheres closely to Ian Fleming's original formula, which is probably my only complaint for a book written over forty years after Dr. No hit the silver screen. I think I would have liked it better if Lawson, his allies and his antagonist were given twenty-first sensibilities.

And just a warning to those who get their knickers in a twist over formatting--there are several issues with this book in the Kindle format. I didn't knock off a star because o...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Fred rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy

This was a pretty good read. It was something totally outside of my normal type of books but I'm glad I read it. I think this counts as Urban Fantasy? Maybe? See I'm not even sure what to call it. Either way, it was good. I'll definitely continue on into the series to see what happens. The book ended with a good deal of momentum and so I hope that isn't lost as the series goes on.

I love that the Vampires in this series aren't some weird type of supernatural creature but instead another species t...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Amber rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked this book off of the review from Amazon and the great low price. The beginning was great, I love the different spin on the "vampire" phenomena. (Don't worry no sparkels or shimmering here) I have to say this book made the thought of Vampire's being real - a lot more believable, then a lot of past books. There is fighting, love, sex, drama, witty zingers! The middle did hit a slow down with the history portion of the book, but it was needed, then it all picks back up. The ending leaves y...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Julie Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. The hero is like a modern day 'vampire samurai' on a quest. Other reviewers have likened him to James Bond but I thought it had more of a film noir feel, or was more related to the 'hard boiled' detective genre. He's a loner, doing a tough job, not knowing who to trust, etc. I love that he had 2 cats to care for, however. It gave him depth. The female lead reminded me of Angelina Jolie in SALT--only better. I appreciated that she had nerve, guts, skill and was able to...more

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Jun 01, 2011 Jordan Steinhoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

A fairly enjoyable tale about a vampire, ninja assassin.

Yes, the modern vampire has become a bit cliched but Merz pulls off a fast reading action story.

He sets up the rules for his world quite well and has some good, if not spectacular characters.

Everything you'd want in the 'hitman with a heart of gold' story is there. The old friend. The new love. The old enemy. The betrayal.

A solid book and I look forward to the next 4 installments.

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Apr 13, 2012 Niki added it

When I first started reading this book, it gave me an old 20s detective type noir feel. There is a lot of flashbacking, but as this is the first book I expected it. It gave me a perspective on both Lawson's and Taylia's personalities for basis for the next series. All in all, a pretty good book. Will I get the sequel? I would.

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Oct 03, 2011 Rex rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, vampires, horror, ebook-epub

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 24, 2011 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, crime

Lawson is a Fixer, which you could assume from reading the name of this series of books by Jon Merz. What that means, though, is that he's responsible for maintaining the Balance between the human and vampire worlds; the vampires are terrified of what will happen if word gets out they exist, so they have people like Lawson to eliminate any vampiric threats of exposure. Threats like Cosgrove, a serial killer who wants to overthrow the Balance and watch the world burn.

Overall I'd call this a fun r...more

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Jul 03, 2012 John rated it 1 of 5 stars

After enjoying Jim Butcher's Dresden and Christopher Farnsworth's Nathan Cade, I thought I'd enjoy the Lawson world more. In the realm of urban fantasy, it's a premiss I like, a vampire enforcer who keeps the world of vampires secret or "Balanced". The book sets up the Lead character, world and rules. However it lacked something extra in the execution. It didn't have the wit and the humor of Butcher or the mix of real secret service, politics, and Lovecraft of Farnsworth. If you enjoy a purely p...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Robin Edman rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a great read, but I cannot rate it any higher because the author needs to work on his basic English usage a little. His language faults work when he is speaking in Lawson's voice, but those who engage in dialog with him should have their very own voices with appropriate levels of fluency.

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May 24, 2011 Kara-karina rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish

I couldn't finish the book although I tried; it's just too slow and too dull, although the idea should work really well. Bu it doesn't. I'm really sorry about it, besides the way the main character was talking about women was really bugging me. Not disrespectful but down his nose. It's just my opinion and I might be mistaken, but here it is.

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Feb 20, 2011 Darcy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

First off I have to say that this book has a horrible cover, it is very cartoony and doesn't make a person want to pick up the book, but I had heard good things about this series so I looked past it.

I only made it 30 pages in before I gave this one up. For some reason the dialogue rubbed me wrong. As I was reading it I couldn't put my finger on the reason why, but it just grated on me to the point where I decided that this book just isn't for me.

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Sep 21, 2011 Shah Wharton rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, I read the reviews and dived straight into this vampire/Bond thriller. And I made it to half way before I simply had to stop reading. The writing was bad, the characterization weak and the masses of boring exposition finally wore me out.

Bad book - Not recommended!

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Apr 11, 2012 Sally Bisbee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Lawson probably isn't one of my favorite vampires but it was a fun read. I'm sure I'll pick up some more of the Lawson books once I catch up with my nook and kindle purchases...

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Jun 27, 2012 Robin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: jon-f-merz, lawson-the-fixer

Eh? He needs an editor more than anything. That said, I may go back and take another whack at this someday. It had promise.

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Mar 30, 2011 Mark Junk rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a great story. I am not a big vampire genre person, but this tale takes a tak that I have not seen before. Great stuff!

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Oct 19, 2011 D.L. Atha rated it 2 of 5 stars

Promising story line but it just got too bogged down in hidden political agenda and religion for me.

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Oct 24, 2012 Bobbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Really liked this book. A new take on vampires. Interesting read.

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About Jon F. Merz

As a writer, Jon has published over a dozen novels including four Lawson Vampire adventures (2002-2003) with Kensington's Pinnacle Books, the Jake Thunder mystery/thriller DANGER-CLOSE (2004) with Five Star Mystery/Thorndike Press, and eight installments in the internationally bestselling adventure series Rogue Angel (2006-present) with Harlequin's Gold Eagle line. His latest thriller PARALLAX deb...more As a writer, Jon has published over a dozen novels including four Lawson Vampire adventures (2002-2003) with Kensington's Pinnacle Books, the Jake Thunder mystery/thriller DANGER-CLOSE (2004) with Five Star Mystery/Thorndike Press, and eight installments in the internationally bestselling adventure series Rogue Angel (2006-present) with Harlequin's Gold Eagle line. His latest thriller PARALLAX debuted in March 2009 as an exclusive ebook. Praised by bestselling authors like Robert B. Parker, Douglas Clegg, and Thomas Monteleone, Jon's novels will continue to thrill readers for many years to come. His short fiction story "Prisoner 392" (appeared alongside Stephen King in FROM THE BORDERLANDS, 2004, Warner Books) earned him an Honorable Mention in 2004's Year's Best Fantasy & Horror edited by Ellen Datlow. Jon has also co-authored two non-fiction books: LEARNING LATER, LIVING GREATER with Nancy Merz Nordstrom (2006, Sentient Publications) and THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO ULTIMATE FIGHTING with Rich "Ace" Franklin (2007, Alpha Books/Penguin/Putnam). Jon's next Lawson Vampire novel, THE KENSEI, debuts in February 2011 from St. Martin's Press

As a producer, Jon has formed New Ronin Entertainment with longtime friend Jaime Hassett to create television and feature film projects in the New England area. Their first project is THE FIXER, a new supernatural action series based on Jon's Lawson Vampire novels. Filming of the pilot begins in 2010.

As a ninja, Jon has studied authentic Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu/Ninjutsu for almost twenty years under Mark Davis of the Boston Martial Arts Center. He has also trained with senior Bujinkan instructors both in the United States and Japan. During a trip to Japan in February 2003, Jon earned his 5th degree black belt directly from the 34th Grandmaster of Togakure-ryu Ninjutsu, Masaaki Hatsumi. In addition to traditional training, Jon has also taught defensive tactics to a wide range of clients, including civilian crime watch groups, police and EMS first responders, military units, and federal organizations including the US Department of State, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Prisons.

In his past, Jon served with the United States Air Force, worked for the US government, and handled executive protection for a variety of Fortune 500 clients. (less)

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The Fixer (Lawson the Fixer #1)

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