Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane by William Peter Blatty Book Review

The first thing I do when I pick up a book like this is give it a good sniff. If it's from the 60s or 70s you can guarantee that those yellowed pages of sepia-tone nostalgia will greet you with a warm, musty scent, reserved for tightly-packed second-hand bookstores and the forgotten back-rooms of thrift shops. Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane smelled great, and had a cover that reminded me of The Exorcist version that I read years ago, with its simple black background and stark white writing.

Book Review: The Redemption by Exorcist author, W P Blatty

William Peter Blatty’s The Redemption (2010), also known as Dimitar, is essentially an exploration of faith wrapped up in a mystery story. It begins in Albania in the 1970s with the story of a mysterious stranger being held by state security. This stranger, The Prisoner, is questioned under various forms of torture while his story, unveiled by The Interrogator – who turns out to be a high-ranking official named Vlora – is slowly revealed.

I say revealed, but even by the end of the first act there remains a massive shroud of mystery, and it is this mystery that keeps the reader gripped.