Legion (original 1983; edition 1983)

Interesting. Not a bad book, but not my type of writing style.I found it slow and hard to get into, so I did not enjoy the read as much as I could have.
It's a good book though. ( )

When a young boy is found brutally murdered in a mock crucifixion, there are four totally unlikely suspects. Was it the elderly woman who witnessed the crime? A neurologist who can no longer bear the pain life inflicts on his patients? A psychiatrist with a macabre sense of humor and a guilty secret, or a mysterious mental patient, locked in silent isolation?

Detective Kinderman follows a bewildering trail in a case that grows more mysterious with each subsequent murder. Why are two murder victims priests? Why does each victim suffer the same dreadful mutilations? Is there some connection with a series of equally gruesome murders which took place a dozen years earlier and supposedly ended with the death of the killer?

I have to say that I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I had seen the sequel to The Exorcist the movie version, which this book is based on. The second movie was absolutely terrible, in my opinion, the third movie was alright for a first time watcher, but was not really able to hold up to a second watching.. That is sort of the same reaction that I had at the end of Legion, I was certainly glad that I read it, but I don't think that I will read it again. I give this book a B! ( )

The Jewish Exorcist.

I never really felt interested in this book until it got into the psychiatric ward. There was too much going on with too few explanantions to really pull me in and it seemed to me like it was really torn between being a crime novel, a horror novel, and a macabre murder mystery. The ending was interesting, but the only thing I really found enjoyable was the unique characters and their interactions, which were quite original and I felt they were true to life. ( )

One of the cool quotes from the bible but the philosophizing over good and evil gets tedious when all the reader really wants is the devil to show up and scare the hell out of us. ( )