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THE DEVIL’S LABYRINTH
John Saul
Ballantine Books
Thriller
Hardcover: 0345487036
Paperback: 9780345487049
Ryan McIntyre finds it difficult to remember his father, who died two years
ago. Capt. McIntyre’s Humvee was obliterated by an Iraqi bomb, making
him an instant hero. The 15-year-old is torn between love for his dad and uncertainty
about a new man in his mother’s life. He is also the object of brutal
attacks by bullies at his public school. Ryan is beaten nearly beyond recognition
and left for dead in the school bathroom, where the janitor finds him. This
is the last straw for his mom, who, with Tom Kelly’s help, enrolls Ryan
in St. Isaac’s Preparatory Academy in Boston for his final high school
days.
St. Isaac’s is the site of troubling occurrences upon Ryan’s arrival.
A student who disappeared and was located by Boston police after having murdered
a woman has been shot to death by the officers. Ryan’s new bed just happens
to be the one assigned to the dead student, Kip Adamson. He is reacquainted
with Father Sebastian Sloan, the young priest who visited him in the hospital
and who now takes him under his wing.
The campus is a venerable site, its aging halls holding secret spaces beneath
the outer structure and in tunnels running the lengths of its boundaries. Students
roam in the tunnels and find shortcuts to upper areas such as the infirmary,
kitchen, library and more. Cold damp walls chill the nerves of trespassers there.
Father Sebastian’s assignment at St. Isaac’s is twofold: to minister
to troubled students and to further his studies in ancient rites of the Church.
His primary emphasis has been exorcism. Within the corridors and tunnels beneath
the school is a hidden chapel, known to but a chosen few members of the faculty.
Here, Father Sebastian helps his most troubled students rid their demons.
The Pope and his retinue visit Boston for an unscheduled trip to witness the
extraordinary rites that Father Sebastian has performed and videotaped. A scholar
of ancient rituals, the Pope must experience for himself the priest’s
one-man war against evil. But terror of a more sinister nature awaits him. As
Ryan witnesses with mounting dread the transformations of his fellow pupils,
he becomes more and more certain that forces of darkness, not divinity, are
at work.
THE DEVIL’S LABYRINTH is a thriller that spellbinds the reader with appreciation
for John Saul’s ingenuity. His 34th book is a winding path of words that
tempts audiences to flip to the final pages for resolution, but the strength
of its plot quickly arrests that urge.
--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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