Having not read The Exorcist, I didn’t really have any expectations when starting Legion by William Peter Blatty.
Instead, I was slightly confused when the opening of this book delves into a philosophical rambling from the main protagonist, Lieutenant Kinderman. He is preoccupied with life’s big questions, which somewhat detracts from the main event of the book as the body of a young boy is discovered. This boy was carrying out his morning paper round when he was killed at a boathouse and is found in a crucified position. However, what makes the discovery even more mysterious is the missing index finger and carving of the Gemini symbol on his hand, which were two MOs of the Gemini Killer, who is believed to be long dead.
Kinderman worked on the original Gemini Killer case and is at a loss for who could know these details, as they were never released to the press. The mystery deepens when more murders are committed, this time leading to the supposedly safe walls of a hospital, and still in keeping with the same MO. Within the hospital setting, we switch to the perspective of a neurologist, Dr Amfortas, who has a lesion on the brain and his condition is slowly deteriorating. As he begins to suffer increasing bouts of memory loss, is it possible for him to be the killer?
The plot grows increasingly creepy as we move to the psychiatric ward, with a doctor that likes to hypnotise his patients into revealing information. This is somewhat effective during police questioning, but could the hypnotist be responsible? Then there is the patient kept on lock-down in a secure area of the ward who claims to have no knowledge of his identity. Is it possible that this is the missing Gemini Killer from all those years ago? Needless to say, this book weaves so many different possibilities for the identity of the murderer that it is still difficult to say what really happened.
I tried my best to engage with the mystery that is weaved in this book, as at first the case of the crucified boy seems unrelated to the next two murders, as the following victims were both priests. This makes it harder to establish a potential motive, and I don’t think one is ever decided on throughout the entire course of the book. It was this absence of surety that began to grate on me as the plot wore on, as I was growing bored with the influx of questions that had no answers. I wouldn’t have minded so much if there was a clear paranormal influence that was meant to be left unsolved, but the book never makes it clear if the answer is possession or if there is a clear human motive and culprit responsible.
The writing was especially difficult to read, as Kinderman is not an easy protagonist to follow around during a police investigation. His relationship with his fellow officers is odd and distanced, with his conversations rarely making any sense. There are instances where there is a clear grasp of the situation and sparks of inspiration as to who to question next, but then there were moments of complete absurdity which ruined all the previous exposition. In his ramblings to his colleagues and friends, or even to interview suspects, Kinderman would randomly begin to bring in philosophical debates or biblical references that had little to do with the plot. I grew very tired of these speeches and it would have been easy to skip past these without missing anything.
In the same way, it was possible to ignore Kinderman’s references to his family, as we are treated to his frequent mockery of his mother-in-law and the on-going joke about a carp in his bathtub. If they were included in an attempt to make him seem more relatable, then this sadly failed as they added nothing to the suspense story and had very little substance. Likewise, it was hard to build up a bigger picture of Dr Amfortas, as we get to see his grief and turmoil at having to give up his career because of his condition, but know almost nothing about his life to warrant caring about him.
I was very disappointed with the character creation in this novel, as I felt that they could have been developed a lot more over the course of the book if the philosophical discussions had been cut down or excluded. It made very difficult to care about what was happening to anyone in the book, which was a shame given the complexity of the case at hand. There were moments when the suspense was superbly written and had me desperate to know more, but it was difficult to appreciate these good moments when the characters were so flawed. I would have liked a more concrete conclusion to this book, as I am still not sure what was going on at the end and found it quite bizarre.
A somewhat strangely narrated book which investigates biblical-style murders, I am still confused as to my opinion of what I have just read. The actual plotline concerning the crime is well-written and intriguing, but this is broken up by the repetitive interludes which ponder the meaning of life and various other philosophical questions. I wanted the narrative to speed up and get to the point, as there was genuine suspense created whilst interviewing the suspects and I didn’t appreciate the deviations from the main plot. The ending still throws up certain questions and uncertainties, but I thought this worked well given the paranormal style of the investigation.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Legion by William Peter Blatty
Mystery, Horror
Tor Books (1 Feb 2011)
Paperback: 333 pages
Goodreads || Amazon UK: Paperback / Kindle || Amazon US: Paperback / Kindle
