Sepulchre

Herbert's latest novel begins as a rather taut political thriller/horror hybrid, but it begins to deteriorate about halfway through, becoming increasingly poorly paced and confused. The story concerns Liam Holloran, a mercenary and the veteran of many violent encounters, who is hired as a bodyguard for Fritz Kline, a psychic who has become aware that his life is threatened but doesn't know by whom. Kline's psychic abilities, it is eventually revealed, are partly the result of an alliance he made long ago with Bel-Marduk, a Sumerian deity who also shows up in Christian theology as the Fallen Angel, Lucifer. Kline and his cohorts are a grisly but one-dimensional lot and Herbert doesn't have very much of a story for them to show off in. The author increasingly relies on repulsive detail in lieu of solid plotting and character development. After the intriguing beginning, a disappointment. (June)