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.