Dimiter features wonderful and magnificent literary visuals: whether it's the cold and dark chambers of the State Security Building ("where grace and hope had never touched"), the "roiling, buffeting rivers" and "freezing heights of desolation", optimistically known as "the Ranges of the Damned" that rob the breath, or a Jerusalem frozen in time. Since most of the story is set in Jerusalem, Blatty's description of its streets, churches and vistas is appropriately captivating and compliments a lush story. Some of us may never visit a Soviet-era prison, or walk the same streets where Christ, Crusaders and Saladin once stood - but Blatty makes his locations come alive, each one offering mysteries, secrets and its own unique combination of pain and hope. 

Another strength of Dimiter is its array of characters. While Peter Meral is not the first literary man in uniform to suffer the loss of his family, there's more to Meral than the thousand-yard stare; the fact that he only occasionally shows his mourning makes it all the more real, than were he to wear it all the time. Dr. Moses Mayo is too reminiscent of the fatigued and pessimistic Interrogator to initially impress, but his sardonic humor makes him a likable character. Wilson, the Californian hippie, is sufficiently enigmatic to keep us interested in him, and Blatty throws enough hints our way to make us think we've got him figured out. Samia, the nurse at Hadassah Hospital, seems loudmouthed, gossipy and maybe a but superstitious, but it's smaller details - her meager apartment and painted wall - that make her character come to life in a city full of ghosts, both living and dead.

If Dimiter suffers from anything, it's from Blatty's use of fragmentary sentences. Broken into paragraphs. When he wants to emphasize action. Drama. Tension. It's always been a pet peeve of mine, and Blatty is a good enough author to be able to deliver the story without stuttering the flow. He does, plenty of times, so his resorting to fragmentary sentences and paragraphs is more of a distraction than it is an annoyance, as is the case for authors who use that route to the point of overkill.

Dimiter is an all-round fascinating piece of work. It's not for everyone, and its slow pace and surreal dream passages sometimes work against it. But Blatty marries an intriguing, intricate plot with a myriad assortment of characters set in exotic locations. Unlike his magnum opus, which scared the crap out of generations of moviegoers, Dimiter will make you contemplate questions of faith, love and forgiveness, all while gazing up at the ceiling and resolving to visit Jerusalem at least once before you die.