Jack's father is killed in a terrorist attack. Still grieving for father he only recently reconnected with, Jack is contacted by his older brother Tom, who needs Jack's help to disappear.

Tom is in deep, deep trouble with the law, as he's a corrupt judge under federal investigation. He dragoons Jack into assisting Tom with a little recovery operation off the coast of Bermuda, which will have tragic consequences for both Jack and Tom, as they discover a lost artifact that should have remained lost.

Until now, Jack has mostly dealt with factions tied to the "Otherness," the alien cosmic entity that seeks intrusion into our world.

Now he discovers that the nominal "Ally" has its own faction, which it uses to intervene in its endless war against the Otherness. It's very nearly as ruthless as the Otherness in pursuing its goals, but it wants to keep Earth within its sphere of influence.

Jack's caught up in a war that threatens to take away everyone that Jack cares about.

Jack is hired to find a teenage girl who’s shacking up with a much older man. Dawn's mother misses her dearly and wants her returned safe and sound.

Dawn's paramour has deep, dark secrets of his own and when Dawn becomes pregnant, he knows that his task is nearly complete.

This is one of the darker entries in the Repairman Jack series. The villains' plans are truly morally and ethically repugnant. Wilson is very good about creating irredeemably evil characters.

ICE here means "Intrusive Cosmic Entities," which is the name that ex-CIA operative Rick Hayden calls the alien forces that appear to be causing chaos on our planet. Unlike Repairman Jack, Rick is NOT a direct target of either the Ally or the Otherness, but he is aware of what the Otherness is capable of to some extent.

Laura Fanning is a medical examiner who’s hired to track down a mythical and mystical "universal cure" for a terminally-ill billionaire. Laura and Rick will travel to the ends of the Earth—or at least a remote corner of Scotland to find the panacea and brink it back.

Rick's zoologist brother has gone missing. Rick and medical examiner Laura once again scour the globe to track down Keith, who appears to have disappeared in East Africa.

Meanwhile, a trader in exotic animals has discovered the source of Keith's "protosimian" companion—a monkeylike creature with extraordinary intelligence and uncanny blue eyes.

The "dapis" as they are dubbed may even be a threat to the human race—one that is empowered by either the Ally or the Otherness.

Numerous factions are climbing out of the woodwork to claim ownership of the Gaijin Masamune, a legendary sword that was a ground zero of the Hiroshima blast in World War II, yet somehow survived.

Things get crazy at the end when Jack maneuvers the various factions to go to literal war with one another.

By the Sword interweaves material from Black Wind as a core part of its storyline, though it's not necessary to read the earlier book to enjoy this one.

The collapse of the World Trade Center was orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. Or was it? Jack's childhood friend Louise "Weezy" Connell claims to have found the TRUE origin of the attack on the World Trade Center and needs Jack's help to disappear before the real architects of the terrorist attack find her.

Turns out the truth is much, much darker than anything Weezy or even Jack can imagine, leading to a global conspiracy network that has one mission: destroy the Lady, a mysterious figure who stands in the way of the Otherness.

A devoted family physician is granted the power to heal any disease or ailment with a touch. It only works a limited time per day.

He has no idea where it comes from, but the Vietnamese gardener of one of his patients has seen it back in Vietnam during the war. Ba (his name) knows that this power comes with a tragic price, though it's one that Dr. Bulmer believes is worth paying for the gift he's able to bring to others, including one special little boy.

This novella was born out of a short-story anthology called Freak Show.

Wilson decided to expand his contribution and tie it more firmly into The Secret History of the World.

All of the sideshow freaks of the circus in question have been born out of the Otherness, touched by that darkness in some profound way. Their leader, Oz, is searching for missing components of an Infernal Device, the purpose of which remains a mystery, though it will only work in certain "touched" regions of the Earth during the equinox.

Super-powered humans have begun showing up in America. The origin of their strange gifts is unknown, but the billionaire patron of Laura Manning and Rick Hayden is determined to find them and understand the nature of their gifts.

The secret lies deep within a hidden military facility underneath the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, where a mysterious "hole" in reality exists that defies any and all explanations.

This one is a bit odd because Wilson wrote it AFTER he swore he’d never write another Repairman Jack novel. But then he decided to tell this tale and fit it into the overall narrative.

One thing to take away from this story: Don't ever, ever try to screw Jack over once he's accepted your job. Don't play games with him. Don't withhold information he asks for. When he finds out you’ve been less than forthright with him, he WILL make you pay. May God have mercy on your soul. Because Jack sure won't.

This is one of the darkest novels in the entirety of The Secret History of the World. In the author’s introduction, Wilson admits that there were passages that were very difficult for him to write, but were necessary for the story.

At its core Reprisal's main theme is the targeted, deliberate destruction of innocence. The Adversary never, ever forgets nor forgives anyone who has slighted him or stood in his way in the past. He exacts terrifying revenge on the former Catholic priest who very nearly killed the Adversary before he could be reborn.

At last we are nearing the end of The Secret History of the World.

In Fatal Error, Jack finds himself embroiled in one final scheme to kill the Lady, the mystical guardian of planet Earth. Twice now she’s been killed by agents of the Otherness, but has managed to find a way to return.

Meanwhile Jack is helping a man whose wife and child were kidnapped. The man in question helped design software code that could potentially end the Internet worldwide, which has grim implications for the future.

Canonically, this is the last of the Repairman Jack novels within The Secret History of the World. The next novel, Nightworld, does feature Jack, but he's part of an ensemble cast of characters from previous works in the series.

In this novel, Jack is finally unleashed to go after the Adversary directly, now that the Adversary knows the Sentinel, the Ally's champion, has been severely weakened by age and infirmity. Jack is paired with his own unlikely ally, Ernst Drexler, who used to by an actuator for the Septimus Order, a faction of the Otherness.

This novella is a prequel to Nightworld, though written several years after that novel. It sets the stage for the events of Nightworld, featuring a number of secondary characters from previous novels who are now trapped in the most terrifying events of their life.

Their world as they knew it is over, as they begin to experience the direct influence of the Otherness within their personal lives.

This is it. The last novel of The Secret History of the World. Chronologically, it takes place around 2012, though it's a bit vague in that regard.

It was originally part of The Adversary Cycle, closing out that series, but as Wilson wrote more and more Repairman Jack novels, he knew he had to revise and rewrite Nightworld to fit in the events that took place in those books.

The end result is one of the most terrifying books about the end of the world I've ever read.

The world, in a nutshell, is boned.