‘The Devil’s Labyrinth’

I don’t think I’ve part-ploughed, part-skipped my way through such a load of nonsense — that, nevertheless, delighted one or two of Saul’s fans, while terribly disappointing others.

Now, having — I hope — piqued your interest what is this book all about? It begins with a prologue in 1975 with a couple of boys burying the body of a pet iguana and discovering an antique box that once had a cross on it. Next we’re in Kuwait in 1991 where an American soldier was foolishly attempting to film a sandstorm and gets shot, clutching the crucifix that had been in his family for generations.

We move on now to Chapter One and 2007 where Ryan McIntyre, son (we subsequently discover) of the soldier killed in Kuwait, is having a hard time at home accepting Tom Kelly, his widowed mother’s friend, and at school where he refuses to let the school bullies copy his work and gets beaten up to within an inch of his life.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Boston Mass., St Isaac’s school for troubled boys and girls has problems with one student, Jeffrey Homes disappearing without trace and another, Kip Anderson, who takes off and, for no apparent reason, kills a woman out walking her dog.

Tom persuades Teri McIntyre to send her son Ryan to St Isaac’s where he’ll be safe from bullies. Ryan reluctantly agrees to change schools where all seems well — but isn’t. Students wonder why before one disappeared and the other went berserk, Jeffrey and Kip both went to confession every day in the sinister chapel with the most gruesome crucifix imaginable in the underground caverns and honeycomb of tunnels below the school.

What of Father Sebastian, popular priest who recently joined the teaching staff with a reputation as an exorcist with extraordinary powers? And why does he refuse to absolve Ryan after confession, insisting that he come to confession every day?

It’s obvious to anyone with the least intelligence that Father Sebastian isn’t the kind of exorcist he appears to be — yet he has not only the elderly, doddering headmaster of St Isaac’s fooled, but the entire Boston diocesan clergy plus the Vatican and the Pope himself to boot.

What’s the betting we’ll end with Al Quaeda and a sinister plot to kill the Pope and deal the Catholic church a mortal blow, all masterminded by Father Sebastian and Tom Kelly, using Ryan and fellow St Isaac’s students Sofia and Melody — while subject to demon possession — to do their dirty work?

So I’ve spoiled the ending for fans of John Saul? Who cares? Saul piles on the horror by the container-load but only succeeds in irritating and boring most of his readers. In fact even self-confessed fans wish they’d borrowed the book from the library instead of buying a copy. However, if you like this kind of nonsense, you’ll find The Devil’s Labyrinth at Nigel Khan, Bookseller.