Legion
Published: 1983
Author: William Peter Blatty
Book 2 of 2: The Exorcist Series
Genres: American, Classics, Fiction, Horror, Movie Tie-In, Mysteries, Occult, Police Procedural, Psychological, Supernatural
Check out the review of this book here:
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Summary:
The narrative starts with the discovery of a twelve-year-old kid who has been killed and crucified on two rowing oars. Kinderman notices that the kid has been mangled in a manner similar to that of the victims of the Gemini Murderer, a serial killer who was shot to death by police while climbing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco twelve years ago. Later, a priest is assassinated in a confessional, his body displaying the mutilations of the ostensibly dead killer once more. However, the fingerprints found at the two crime locations are not identical.
More victims soon follow, including one of Kinderman's pals, Father Dyer (from The Exorcist), who is murdered at a hospital and beheaded. The mutilations of the Gemini Killer are once again visible.
Kinderman was led to the hospital's mental section, where his buddy was murdered. He discovers a lot of suspects here.
Dr. Freeman Temple is a psychiatrist who treats his patients with dismissive and even contempt.
Another doctor at the hospital is Dr. Vincent Amfortas. He is enigmatic and uncommunicative, and he appears apathetic toward everything since his wife's death.
The hospital has a lot of elderly patients who are suffering from senile dementia. Although the fingerprints of many senile patients have been recovered at crime scenes, interviews with the patients reveal that they are unable to carry out the intricate killings and mutilations.
Tommy Sunlight - a strange patient discovered walking aimlessly disguised as a priest eleven years ago, who boasts of being the Gemini Killer reborn and claims to have carried out the recent killings while being confined to a locked cell in a straitjacket. He alleges that the doctors and nurses allowed him out to murder on one occasion. He also has a striking resemblance to Damien Karras, a priest who is said to have been killed in The Exorcist by falling down a flight of stairs.
The genuine Gemini Killer, James Vennamun, whose body was never recovered, implying that he may have lived and resumed his atrocities.
Sunlight informs Kinderman towards the conclusion of the story that the demon from the previous novel (The Exorcist) helped him in possessing Damien Karras' body soon after Karras' death as a form of vengeance for having been pushed out of the small girl. Sunlight spent years attempting to regain control of his injured body, during which time Karras was sent to a psychiatric institution. He had no identity and was given the moniker Sunlight because he sat in the sun's rays as they streamed through his cell window.
After eventually taking possession of Karras' body, the Gemini would periodically leave it to inhabit the bodies of senile dementia patients, which he could use to execute murders because they were in an open ward with access to the outside world. As a result, the fingerprints of numerous senile patients were discovered at crime scenes; their bodies committed the killings, but the Gemini Killer was in charge of them.
The Gemini's original motivation was to humiliate his loathed father, a preacher. The Gemini Killer believes his job is complete when his father dies through natural causes, and he sees no reason to keep Karras' body. He summons the detective; feeling obligated to explain everything to Kinderman, and succeeds in getting Kinderman to admit that he believes he, Sunlight, is the Gemini Killer. He then wills himself to pass away from heart failure.
Dr. Temple had a stroke and becomes intellectually handicapped as a result. Dr. Amfortas dies in a house accident after being harassed by a possibly demonic Doppelganger of himself, despite the fact that he was already terminally sick from a condition he refused to cure in order to join his departed wife).
Kinderman and his devoted buddy Atkins are in a burger bar in the novel's last chapter. Atkins is given Kinderman's views and speculations about the case, as well as how it connects to his issue with the concept of evil. Kinderman concludes that the Big Bang was Lucifer falling from heaven, that the entire Universe, including mankind, is made up of Lucifer's broken bits, and that evolution is the process of Lucifer reassembling himself as an angel.
Rating: 100/100
Recommended: 100/100 Yes.
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The Exorcist III (Rated R):
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