Review by Booklist Review
Beginning with Ishmael (1992) and proceeding to After Dachau [BKL F 15 01], Quinn has used fiction to entice readers into questioning the increasingly destructive nature of Western civilization. In his sixth novel he wisely skips the bossy lectures that burden his earlier works and presents an electrifying, provocative, and dryly amusing thriller with cosmic dimensions. The quest begins when wealthy Chicagoan Aaron Fisher hires nearly retired private investigator Howard Schiem, an ex-boxer with the face to prove it, to undertake a very strange case: Aaron wants to know what became of Baal, Ashtaroth, and Moloch, the old gods whom the Old Testament castigates as false. Howard ends up having his Tarot cards read and helping young Tim from Indiana look for his father, who has inexplicably abandoned his orderly life and headed west. Howard and Tim follow suit, and the terrifying supernatural events that transpire on dark highways and rugged mountains, in neon-bright Las Vegas and a desert mansion, do indeed uncloak the old gods, and reveal the holy life force that blazes in everyday splendor right here on precious earth. --Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A detective goes demon hunting in this supernatural mystery from the bestselling author of Ishmael. Chicago sexagenarian private eye Howard Sheim is hired by millionaire Aaron Fischer to probe the existence of Baal, Ashtoroth and Moloch, "false gods" named in the Old Testament book of Exodus. The search leads him to a self-styled mystic who, after reading his future with tarot cards, refers Howard to a teenage seer, Richard Holloway. The boy tells him that there are those living among us-he calls them "yoo-hoos"-who are not really human, though he has no idea exactly what they are. After consulting a rabbi and a warlock, the skeptical Howard is about ready to throw in the towel and go back to his missing-person cases. The narrative switches to follow the quixotic odyssey of 42-year-old Midwesterner David Kennesey, who suddenly abandons his wife and 12-year-old son and heads west without a thought to his destination. Separately, his wife and son embark on their own quests to find him. After adventures in Chicago and Vegas, David stumbles into a mountain Shangri-La inhabited by a woman named Andrea and her coterie of oddball denizens. Back in Chicago, Howard-now with David's son-tracks David to Andrea's, where he finds out that the gods are alive and up to their old tricks. Quinn's playful metaphysical sleuthing and cast of chimerical figures are entertaining, but fans of Ishmael and After Dachau may feel that this book doesn't have quite the originality or moral weight of his earlier efforts. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The latest New Age rant from Quinn (Beyond Civilization, 1999, etc.) includes Chicago gumshoe Howie Scheim's toughest case: tracking down the devil. He's had a lot of aliases down the years (Beelzebub, Baal, Moloch), and Quinn adds a few more (Yoo-Hoo, most memorably). Howie Scheim doesn't normally take on missing devil cases, but this time a dying Chicago millionaire named Aaron Fischer gives him twenty grand for the work, with the promise of another fifty once he finds his man. Aaron can't help wondering about all those times in the Old Testament when the Jews abandoned the God of Israel to worship Baal and Ashtaroth and whoever else. The Israelites were not dumb, after all, so Aaron wants to know: What did they see in these false gods? What had they to offer? Howie thinks Aaron has bats in his belfry from the start, but twenty grand is twenty grand, so off he goes. First stop is an old pal at the Trib, who puts him in touch with a psychic, who puts him in touch with a clairvoyant, who puts him in touch with a Satanist, and so on-the usual networking, but in a very different network. Howie learns early on that there's a lot more going on here than he would have been willing to grant at the start. For one thing, all our ideas about spirituality and God have been deformed by the established secular and religious authorities. Satan is not an evil spirit; he is the incarnation of courage and daring. In fact, he's not really Satan at all-his name is Pablo, and he's a nice guy who has always had a soft spot in his heart for humanity. And, yes, Howie does get to meet him. This could have been a great exercise in high camp-except for the fact that the author seems in deadly earnest. First printing of 35,000; $75,000 ad/promo; author tour
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