While Ryan McIntyre mourns the loss of his father, a
soldier who died in combat in Kuwait, he begins to feel
that he's losing his mother, too, to her new boyfriend. As
Ryan tries to sort through his feelings and frustrations,
he's also dealing with a bully situation at school. Looking
to his father's memory to help him do the right and
honorable thing, Ryan tries to cope with the normal and the
not-so-normal trials of his teenage life. Things change
dramatically for Ryan when he is brutally attacked by some
fellow students who routinely terrorize the student body.
Teri McIntyre, Ryan's mother, fears for the safety of her
only child, and at the urging of her new boyfriend, she
decides to send Ryan to a private Catholic boarding school,
St. Isaac's. Although Ryan does not fit the bill as the
typical troubled teen, his mother and her boyfriend, Tom
Kelly, reassure Ryan that he'll be safe from the dangers of
violence in the public school he experienced previously.
After a visit from the kindly and empathetic Father
Sebastian, the youth counselor at St. Isaac's, Ryan is
willing to give the new school a try. What he and his
mother do not anticipate is the very real, quiet and deadly
danger rooted deep in the heart of St. Isaac's. Below the
surface of the school lies a multitude of dark tunnels, and
in those tunnels is an evil presence that's being coaxed
forth by one of the school's priests. The rituals he
performs are not the exorcisms he's been assigned to
perform at the school, if necessary. Instead, he's bringing
evil forth and harnessing the power for his own agenda.
Unaware, Ryan is the newest of the chosen ones. Only when
it's too late to save himself does Ryan stumble upon the
key to the disturbing and dangerous behavior of the
students who've been "exorcised." Is it too late for Ryan
to do the right thing? Does he posses the power to overcome
the evil he knows has taken over his body?
This is John Saul's 34th novel and he does not
disappoint. It's a fast moving tale, which I had great
difficulty putting down. Forcing myself up for air and
light out of THE DEVIL'S LABYRINTH proved to be a
challenge. Saul's typically masterful development of
characters is present. These are believable characters,
struggling with very real situations and emotions, which
most readers will easily identify with. These same
characters have been skillfully woven into a surreal plot
of evil and masterful deception, yet it becomes a
believable story, as long as one is engaged in it. Very
early on, Saul leads the reader to sense that the
characters are intertwined, yet the author teases because
it is not readily evident how they are connected until well
into the final third of the book.
"Wow! He's done it again! Another fabulous, edge-of-your-
seat, nail-biting thriller from John Saul. This is
an intriguing and unique story with elements of religious
mystery and religious history. And, true to form, Saul
includes some macabre and graphic descriptions that will
likely serve as an effective appetite suppressant for some.
This was a fabulous read.
For more than three decades, bestselling novelist John
Saul has been summoning macabre masterpieces from the
darkest realms of his imagination. With each new book, his
instinct for playing upon our deepest dread has grown only
stronger and more sinister. He’s never been afraid to push
the boundaries of suspense and confront us with what
frightens us most.
After his father’s untimely death sends 15-year-old Ryan
McIntyre into an emotional tailspin, his mother enrolls him
in St. Isaac’s Catholic boarding school, hoping the
venerable institution with a reputation for transforming
wayward teens can work its magic on her son.
But troubles are not unknown even at St. Isaac, where Ryan
arrives to find the school awash in news of one student’s
violent death, another’s mysterious disappearance, and
growing incidents of disturbing behavior within the
hallowed halls.
Things begin to change when Father Sebastian joins the
faculty. Armed with unprecedented knowledge and uncanny
skills acquired through years of secret study, the young
priest has been dispatched on an extraordinary and
controversial mission: to prove the power of one of the
Church’s most arcane sacred rituals, exorcism. Willing or
not, St. Isaac’s most troubled students will be pawns in
Father Sebastian’s one-man war against evil – a war so
surprisingly effective that the pope himself takes notice
of the seemingly miraculous events unfolding an ocean away.
But Ryan, drawn ever more deeply into Father Sebastian’s
ministrations, sees – and knows – otherwise. As he
witnesses with mounting dread the transformations of his
fellow pupils, his certainty grows that forces of darkness,
not divinity, are at work. Evil is not being cast out . . .
something else is being called forth. Something that hasn’t
stirred since the Inquisition’s reign of terror. Something
nurtured through the ages to do its vengeful masters’
unholy bidding. Something whose hour has finally come to
bring hell unto earth.
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