If you have little Jetermaniacs at home, then this a must have! Jeteris one of the best role models today to our children, and this book is a great big thank you for it!

Borderline urban realism gets a wake-up call from Hades; this is top drawer suspense writing. Take a dash of Elmore Leonard, a healthy sprinkling of James Crumley, season well with the sensibilities of James Lee Burke, and shake well with sheer originality and true talent and you get Jack O'Connell. It really doesn't get any better than this.

I am sure this book is about Worcester, Massachusetts. It is about what happens under the pavement of an old industrial town in New England, about the secrets of previous lives, about the separation of the rich and the poor, the established and the Bohemian in American society, mixed with faint memories of the German experience in the great War of generations past and about the persecution of Jews and artists now and then.

I love Jack O'Connell. Love his characters, setting (especially), and the strange way he tells a story. Read one and you will read them all. I know you will...if you like a quirky set of characters, a David Lynch way of presenting a story, you will love this. Take me to the Combat Zone where midgets, lesbians, and just about anyone you can imagine RULE!

O'Connell is the intelligent reader's Elmore Leonard. A writer with an eclectic vision that dangerously intersects with contemporary reality.This writer deserves a huge following. I have no doubt that it will come eventually.

I initially picked up this book looking for a quick, mindless horror story. I was immediately sucked into this intriguing story of darkness, despair, and pain in the world of a underground, rare books trade ring. Jack O'Connell has a great grasp of language taking a simple "detective story" and turning it into a tale of human cruelty and moral depravation. This is a great book, and creepy as hell.

Gilrein quit the police force when his wife, a fellow cop, died during a raid on a bomb factory. Three years later, he drives a cab in the rundown town of Quinsigamond. His fare that night turns out to be a steady customer, Leonardo Tani, a fence who dies that night courtesy of August Kroger's thugs. This gang also viciously beats up Gilrein as they seek a book allegedly possessed by Tani.

Gilrein decides to investigate, especially after he connects the Tani death to the murder of his spouse. Gilrein searches his deceased wife's notebooks looking for clues that might connect Inspector Laczze and his "Methodology" to the Kroger gang. He also begins inquiries into the most dangerous areas of a dying town where death potentially awaits Gilrein at each corner.

WORD OF FLESH is a weird, dark, but absolutely superb tale. The story line is filled with a dark landscape as nightmares abound under the guise of justice and crime. Gilrein is a wondrously tortured soul and the eccentric support cast augment the novel that will leave readers wanting to go Krogering. Jack O'Connell has written one of the most exciting, fantastic, but sobering tales of the year.

Harriet Klausner

If you can get through the first few pages of this book, (it took me three attempts to do it), you'll find much more than a well-written horror story.
O'Connell shows us the darkest side of humanity, in a fictional place that could well have been the German ghettos during the late 1930's.
Be warned, this book is emotionally exhausting and ultimately tells us something of the human condition that we ignore at our own peril.

Jack O'Connell's Box Nine succeeds in many departments: It has an evocative and original setting, snappy dialogue and a super female lead that oozes charisma. And although the idea of a synthetic and brain-enhancing drug (Lingo), sweeping the streets and changing a culture is a nice idea, I don't think he pulls it off with much conviction.

Lenore Thomas is one of the most memorable characters in recent fiction - a powerfully intense figure who dominates an equally intense debut novel. O'Connell creates a world - and a drug - that make an indelible impact on the reader.

Jack O'Connell is one of my favorite authors I love the Combat Zone and all of its quirky, demented characters. Postal Service...Box 9... it doesn't get much better then this if you like very unusual settings and characters. I've just had a taste of his newest, "Word Made Flesh," and am already intrigued. Jack, you've made my next week of reading!