Adept: Death of an Adept

Pouring old wine into new bottles once again, Kurtz and Harris serve up another vintage dark fantasy in this fifth adventure about reincarnated Adept Adam Sinclair and his efforts to contain ancient occult forces simmering beneath the civilized veneer of contemporary Scotland. Sworn to uphold ""a code of spiritual morality which is, itself, a reflection of the Divine Will,"" Sinclair, Peregrine Lovat and other mystically endowed members of the Hunting Lodge square off against black Adept Francis Raeburn, still licking his wounds after his defeat in Dagger Magic (1995). They also take on the Lodge of the Lynx, a cabal of evildoers determined to channel the demonic energies of Taranis, Lord of Lightning. Kurtz and Harris have become so comfortable with their characters and the details of their lives that they dither leisurely for the first half of the novel, juxtaposing Adam's lengthy preparations for his Stateside wedding to Ximena Lockhart against Raeburn's equally protracted execution of the Druidic rites that will summon terrors from the Outer Darkness. But once Adam returns to Scotland from his American sojourn, the tug-of-war between the armies of light and darkness escalates into a full-blown battle. The secrets of freemasonry, the Knights Templar and Scottish myth are deployed like campaign strategies; psychometry, scrying, astral projection and other armaments in the occult arsenal are unleashed with wild abandon. Although stamped from the same template as the black magic novels Dennis Wheatley wrote a half-century ago, this tale packs thrills that will appeal to discerning modern readers. (Jan.)