Legion

The sequel to The Exorcist.

A young boy, a deaf-mute, is found horribly murdered in a mock crucifixion. The kindly, aging detective assigned to the case sees it not only as a crime – one that calls for all his skill and intuition as an investigator – but as part of a larger and more baffling mystery; whether or not a good god can exist if He tolerates such monstrous evil. Is the murderer the elderly woman who witnessed the crime? A neurologist who can no longer bear the pain life inflicts on its victims? A psychiatrist with a macabre sense of humor and a guilty secret? A mysterious mental patient, locked in silent isolation?

As Lieutenant Kinderman follows a bewildering trail that links all these people, he confronts a new enigma at every turn. Why does each victim suffer the same dreadful mutilations? Why are two victims priests? Is there a connection between these crimes and another series of murders that took place twelve years ago – and supposedly ended with the death of the killer?