Jason Rekulak Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Impossible Fortress | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Hidden Pictures | (2022) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Last One at the Wedding | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Jason Rekulak is a crime mystery and thriller author that is best known for his novel “The Impossible Fortress.”
He works a day job at a Philadelphia-based independent publishing house Quirk, where he has managed to engineer a string of bizarre bestselling titles. Some of his works include “Pride and Prejudice and Zombie” by Seth Grahame0-Smith.
He has also been involved in the nurturing of young writers who would become global stars such as Ransom Riggs and Ben H. Winters. The former’s works have sold millions of copies over the years.
Even though the name Rekulak does not appear in many of his works, he has written more than a dozen works for the publishing house.
He usually works on these works on weekends and on the evenings whenever he has a great idea and cannot find a good writer for it.
His anonymous works include HP Lovecraft-inspired middle-grade series he wrote as Charles Gilman. Writing as Miranda Clarke, he also wrote a choose your won adventure romance work.
As such while The Impossible Fortress is the first under his name, it is strictly speaking not his debut.
In College, Jason Rekulak studied programming but realized he was a misfit in the course when he took an elective. He was a very imaginative fellow and could create interesting worlds but was never a very good programmer.
He loved writing for the aspects of game design and storytelling without having to code which he hated. At Pennsylvania State University, he decided to study English after which he got employed by St. Martin’s Press.
It was while he was working at small independent publisher Running Press that the met the founder of Quirk Books David Borgenicht. He would then get hired as editor starting with a catalog of gag collections and goofy novelty.
In time, the internet put to bed that niche as YouTube videos and humor blogs made one-note joke books pretty much dead. Jason soon decided to branch into fiction but found it difficult to find works that were a good fit for the offbeat brand of his imprint.
Given that Quirk never provided huge advances topping out mostly at $15,000, they got very few queries from writers and agents. As such, he found it easier to make his own plots and get someone to write them.
He started with the irreverent and gory “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” which went on to sell nearly 2 million copies.
His time as editor and publisher at Quirk taught Jason Rekulak many things about how books are sold. As a publisher, he was used to constantly pitching books to neighbors and friends, booksellers, sales rep, and their own staff.
Since he knows how hard it is to get anyone to read any pitch, he carefully considers how his work will be sold when writing. In doing so, he looks at the audience and how it will rise above the noise to attract his audience.
While he is now a successful author, he still works a day job as an editor. Nonetheless, his bigger identity is that of a writer as he has been a writer since he was a junior in college.
Even while he was working a full-time job as an editor, he used to take an hour or two every day to write during the late evenings or very early in the mornings.
To become the success that he is today, he sacrificed a lot of time that would have been spent on hobbies or with friends.
For many years, he either published under a pseudonym or sometimes published nothing, which sometimes got him to doubt himself. He thanks his wife for not allowing him to ever think of giving up.
“The Impossible Fortress” by Jason Rekulakis is set in 1987. “Wheel of Fortune’s” Vanna White finds herself scandalized when “Playboy” magazine publishes several scandalous photographs.
For three teenage boys Clark, Alf, and Billy who know practically nothing about women, having “Playboy” is something of a Holy Grail.
Since it is too expensive and restricted by age, they come up with a plan to steal it. It is a plan full of danger as they have to overcome electronic alarm systems, a locked building, leap across rooftops, and manage to silence, a hyperactive dog.
But their heist meets with failure after failure, which ultimately results in the hatching of a grand master plan. They intend to seduce Mary Zelinsky the daughter of the Zelinsky convenience store.
They will then use her to help them swipe the security code. The task of befriending the girl falls to Billy who is asked to get the information by nook or crook.
However, Mary is nothing like the average teenage girl as she is an expert coder and loves computers. She is far ahead of Billy and has a big heart and a wry sense of humor.
But what started as a game in order to win her affections soon provides him with a stark choice. He has to either break a promise he made to his friends or deceive the girl that he believes is his soulmate.
Jason Rekulak’s novel “Hidden Pictures” is the story of Mallory Quinn, a woman fresh out of rehab. She is now living in Spring Brook, a wealthy suburb of New Jersey, where she babysits for Caroline and Ted Maxwell who have a five-year-old son.
Mallory could not have been happier with her new job. She has the stability she has always wanted, goes on nightly runs, and gets to live in the pool house.
She sincerely bonds with the shy but sweet boy Teddy who is always sketching with his pencil. Teddy usually draws balloons, trees, and rabbits but one day he sketches a man in the woods dragging the lifeless body of a woman.
Over the following weeks, his artwork gets even more sinister and his sketches are evolving into more lifelike, complex, and detailed sketches far beyond someone of his years.
Mallory believes he could be sketching clues of a homicide from years ago that are being relayed by a supernatural force behind their house.
Working with an eccentric neighbor and a handsome landscaper, Mallory sets out to save Teddy and decipher the images while he comes to terms with some dark tragedy in her past.