Jim Rook Books In Order

Publication Order of Jim Rook Books

Jim Rook is the lead character of the “Jim Rook” series of novels by Scottish author Graham Masterton. Masterton wrote the first novel of the series “Rook” in 1996 and it was not long before the novel was flying off the shelves. As to the author, he was born in 1946 Edinburgh, and claims ancestry to eminent scientist Thomas Thorne Baker the first man to ever send news photographs wirelessly and the inventor of the DayGlo. Graham trained as newspaper reporter in his early adult years and spent much of his twenties editing “Mayfair”, the British men’s magazine. It was at Mayfair that he met and encouraged writer Burroughs Williams to write the philosophical and scientific articles that would later become some of the most popular novel series “The Wild Boys”. He got the job of executive editor of “Penthouse Forum” and “Penthouse” magazines aged only 24 which was testament to his writing talent.

It was while he was working for the magazines that he went into the writing of novels. He wrote “How to Drive Your Man Wild”, a sex how to novel that became a bestseller selling more than three million copies since then. In addition to his novels, Masterton also contributes pieces for “Woman’s Own”, “Woman”,
“Men’s Health”, “Cosmopolitan” and several other self-improvement publications. Graham launched his fiction writing career with the publication of “The Manitou” that came out in 1976. The novels tells the story of a Native American medicine man that is reincarnated to carry out the community’s revenge against the atrocities of the white settlers. The novel was so successful, selling thousands of copies immediately after release that it was soon adapted into a movie starring Tony Curtis. Since then the author had penned more than 100 historical sagas, disaster novels, horror, and thrillers. He has also written horror in the young adult and children’s demographic. Over the years his novels have won several prestigious awards including the Prix Julia Verlanger for The Picture of Dorian Gray that was an adaptation of the same by Oscar Wilde. He got the West Coast Review of Books Silver Medal, and a Mystery Writers of America Special Edgar award. His lead character of the Jim Rook series is a Remedial English teacher with some of the most vexing idiosyncrasies that enables him to sight ghosts. Graham Masterton currently lives in Cork in a Victorian era Gothic mansion near River Lee.

The lead character of the series is Jim Rook, a likable man who has given his life for his special education students. Rook is an excellent teacher who for the most part takes up some of the most difficult of classes and students. When we are first introduced to the protagonist, his history is that of a man that had a near death experience in his childhood. The traumatic experience which would have worn down a lesser man had instead left him with the gift of seeing spirits and ghosts. Given that he has never been one to seek attention, he is reluctant to use his gifts except for when it is absolutely necessary. However, when the lives of his students and their well-being are threatened, he has no choice but to put his rare gifts into action for their protection. The “Jim Rook” series of novels are excellent thrillers about paranormal forces. These forces are either working on their own or are deployed by students who control them to bring harm unto their fellow students. Combining horror, visceral sex and murder, Jim Rook is often on a quest to track down, find and eliminate one supernatural spirit or another, even as he protects his students from these spirits or even the law. Masterton introduces antagonists with some very strong powers who kill in bloody and gruesome ways, even as they are for the most part invisible to their victims, ,making them even more terrifying. In some instances, the spirits are even invisible to Rook which makes for an even more intriguing case as he attempts to find a way to eliminate them by first exposing them.

“Rook “the first novel of the series introduces Jim Rook, a man that had nearly been lost to pneumonia as a child. The harrowing experience had left him with an exceptional ability to see all manner of spirits and ghosts. He had never tried to put his extraordinary talents to use as he found them weird if not disturbing. But now that one of his students is in police custody, accused of murder, he needs to do something. He is certain that he saw the student’s uncle at the scene of crime even though he has told the police a story that seems to hold up. He discovers that Uncle Umber has the ability to get out his body using a technique name “The Smoke”. Using this technique he can commit crimes including kill, while his real body is manufacturing a watertight alibi. The only way for Rook to ever catch the man is by challenging him by using the same technique on him.

“Tooth and Claw”, the second novel of the Jim Rook series has Rook teaching at the West Grove Community College. Susan White Bird is the most recent arrival in his English class. She is a shy and beautiful girl who has lived a protected life under her brothers George and Sam. Her beauty soon attracts the attention of Brad Dolman a college senior who turns up dead a few days later. His body and face are found terribly mutilated in his car in a brutal attack that has all the hallmarks of a wild animal attack. The brothers George and Sam are immediately arrested by the police who believe them responsible. But then two more students are attacked making it impossible for the brothers to have committed the crimes since they are in custody. But something sinister still lurks in the air around campus, it is something that would turn Susan into a dark creature of Navajo myth. There is no hope for Susan except for Jim Rook who sees the danger lurking from miles away. The students have only Jim left to defend them from a clash between ancient and new America.