Suddenly, a family physician can heal any illness with a simple touch
After a dozen years of practicing medicine as a family physician, Dr. Alan Bulmer discovers one day that he can cure any illness with the mere touch of his hand. At first his scientific nature refuses to accept what is happening to him, but there is no rational explanation to be found. So Alan gives himself over to this mysterious power, reveling in the ability to cure the incurable, to give hope to the hopeless—for one hour each day.
Although he tries to hide his power, word inevitably leaks out, and soon Alan’s life begins to unravel. His marriage and his practice crumble. Only rich, beautiful, enigmatic Sylvia Nash stands by him. And standing with her is Ba, her Vietnamese gardener, who once witnessed a power such as Dr. Bulmer’s in his homeland, where it is called Dat-tay-vao. And the Dat-tay-vao always comes with a price.
Help arrives from an unexpected quarter—Senator James McCready offers the use of his family’s medical foundation to investigate Alan’s supposed power. If it truly exists, he will back Alan with the full weight of the Foundation’s international reputation. Feeling that he has reached bottom and that things can only get better, Alan accepts McCready’s offer. But he has only begun to pay.
“A superior supernatural excursion from the author of The Keep and The Tomb…. Hair-raisingly plausible ideas, winningly developed, set in a well-paced, gripping narrative. His best so far.” --Kirkus Reviews
“[Not] a horror novel in the usual sense, and variations on this idea have been used before, but rarely with the skill and entertainment value of this fine novel.” --The San Francisco Chronicle
F. Paul Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything in between. His books include the Repairman Jack novels, including Ground Zero, The Tomb, and Fatal Error; the Adversary cycle, including The Keep; and a young adult series featuring the teenage Jack. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego ComiCon, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers of America, among other honors. He lives in Wall, New Jersey.
I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)
I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 33 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.
THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, and BY THE SWORD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a girly coffee at Starbuck's.)
My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.
And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 14 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, THE TOMB is finally moving toward production as "Repairman Jack" from Beacon Films and Touchstone. The plan is to make Jack a franchise character. (Gotta tell you: all the years of this has worn me out.)
I've done a few collaborations too. One with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, and a bunch with Matthew J. Costello. Matt and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.
We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.
I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new Repairman Jack novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)
The Touch is Book Three in Author F. Paul Wilson's "Adversary Cycle", and while I've enjoyed all three books (The Keep and The Tomb are the previous installments), I still have NO clue what the have to do with one another. The Touch is a marked departure from the Horrific aspects of the two prior Adversary books; It's more in line with Wilson's Medical thrillers. Doctor Alan Bulmer is gifted (Or is it cursed..?) with the Dat-Tay-Vao, which enables him to heal with a touch, but seems to be exacting a terrible price. The characters are realistic and engaging, and Wilson's writing style is brisk; The story moves along quickly, and I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't able to predict every plot-twist a mile in advance. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Wilson's Adversary books.
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This review is from: The Touch (Mass Market Paperback)
I became a big fan of F. Paul Wilson after reading The Keep and The Tomb. The Touch was the third book of his that I read and I was not dissapointed. The novel began a little slowly with an introduction of the characters but soon developed into a mysterious thriller. I liked the story and how Wilson only lets the reader know what's happening to the main character as he is finding out himself. I thought it was a very intelligent and thrilling book and a very worthy addition to Wilson's Adversary Cycle. The Tomb is still my favorite by far but I thoroughly enjoyed The Touch as well as any of the others.
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This review is from: The Touch (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a book of suspense not horror. And like most of Wilson's books his character development is exceptional. I even recommend it to my wife who doesn't like horror novels. How this book fits into the Adversary Cycle I havent't a clue. So I guess I'll just have to read the final three to find out. A great book for a "dark and stormy night".
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