Torchwood: The House That Jack Built [Hardcover]

Guy Adams (Author)

Book Description

Series: Torchwood | Publication Date: August 18, 2009

Jackson Leaves: an Edwardian house in Penylen, built in 1906, semi-detached, three storeys, spacious, beautifully presented, and left in good condition to Rob and Julia by Rob's late aunt. It's an ordinary sort of a house... except for the way the rooms don't stay in the same places. And the strange man that turns up in the airing cupboard. And the apparitions. And the temporal surges that attract the attentions of Torchwood. And the fact that the first owner of Jackson Leaves in 1906 was a Captain Jack Harkness... Featuring Captain Jack Harkness as played by John Barrowman, with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones as played by Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd, in the hit series created by Russell T. Davies for BBC Television.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Guy Adams has written books about Life on Mars including the bestselling Rules of Modern Policing, written as DCI Gene Hunt. He's the author of the British Fantasy Society Award nominated Deadbeat series and a handful of children's books, and is currently working on a thirteen-volume horror series for young adults and a replica scrapbook of John Watson MD's time with Sherlock Holmes. This is his first Torchwood novel.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House UK; First Edition edition (August 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846077397
• ISBN-13: 978-1846077395
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #581,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but a bit too jumpy, June 23, 2010

By 

Cristin McCusker (Weatogue, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Torchwood: The House That Jack Built (Kindle Edition)

I thought the narrative voice in this was very entertaining and the author's take on the Torchwood characters was engaging (especially as Alexander, the wheelchair-bound alien, was introduced). But as the story went on and the leaps from one character's point of view to another grew faster and with more events recounted multiple times, I found it a bit annoying. It made the last third of the book feel rushed. I'm not sure if the author was trying to convey a sense of the temporal anomalies he was writing about or if he was simply jumping around too much.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A house that is haunted?, August 26, 2009

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Torchwood: The House That Jack Built (Hardcover)

About time they had a book with a haunted house. You would think haunted houses and Torchwood went hand in hand? For Guy Adams to do his first Torchwood novel set in a so-called haunted house was, in my eyes, brilliant. Even if Captain Jack Harkness does not believe in ghosts he is going to have to handle this house with care. The rooms move, ghosts from the past pop up and, of course, people start to die for no reason. Well, no normal reason.
Of course Torchwood has to come see. Temporal surges seem to be the cause. Or are they?
Because it seems that in 1906 the house in question was owned by Jack. You see, Jack is the center, the cause, the effect, of the whole series of events. If that made any sense. Does it make sense to call a house Jackson Leaves?
But sometimes plots don't make sense. And neither do traps. And when you are setting a trap, you don't want anybody to notice it. Until it is too late.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Repetitive and Slow-Paced, July 14, 2010

By 

Donald J. Bingle "orphyte" (Saint Charles, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Torchwood: The House That Jack Built (Hardcover)

The characters sound okay I guess, but they remain far too passive far too often and don't really display a lot of emotional depth as arbitrary bad things happen about them. Add that to the generally slow-paced sequence of events and a lot of repetitiveness as scenes are picked-up slightly rewound every time there is a shift in point of view and this is one book that not only can, but is, put down and picked up again with only a modicum of enthusiasm.