Dimiter

With his latest novel, Blatty proves not only that he still can write compelling prose nearly 40 years after his acclaimed EXORCIST but also that he makes a fine narrator. His deep, raspy voice provides a nice "jagged edge" for this psychological thriller, which delicately interweaves a string of events that eventually come together--from a man being tortured by the Albanian government in the 1970s to a growing number of deaths at a Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem that is filled with people of diverse ethnic and cultural identities. Blatty uses pauses to stretch out the more chilling moments of the narrative. While his female character voices aren't entirely believable, they don't distract the listener from the story. L.E. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 11, 2010
Blatty fans looking for straight-up horror in the vein of The Exorcist
will be disappointed, but those with broader tastes will find this a beautifully written, haunting tale of vengeance, spiritual searching, loss, and love. In 1973 Albania, Colonel Vlora (aka “the Interrogator”), the head of a team of torturers, questions “the Prisoner,” who the reader later learns is Paul Dimiter, “an American clandestine agent referred to in some quarters of the world as 'legendary,’ while in others as 'the agent from hell.’ ” (Rumor has it Dimiter poisoned Ho Chi Minh while the Vietnamese leader was visiting Albania shortly before his death in 1969.) Dimiter escapes to Jerusalem, where he encounters a number of engaging characters, including a doctor of neurology, a sharp-tongued nurse, and a grief-stricken Israeli policeman. The complicated plot confounds until the isolated pieces of the psychological puzzle that’s Dimiter match up and fall into place, revealing surprising truths.