A 1978 novel by James Herbert.
Private Investigator and British Army veteran Harry Steadman, asked by Mossad agents to find the missing brother of his deceased lover Lilla, refuses further involvement. His partner Maggie Wyeth discreetly takes the case, and is murdered.
Approached by MI5 agent Nigel Pope, Steadman is compelled to take the case. At the small Guildford mansion of weapons manufacturer Edward Gant, Steadman and journalist Holly Miles, alone on the estate, are near-fatally chased by a Chieftain tank - whose eventual wreck reveals no occupant.
Steadman’s further investigation reveals Gant’s well-connected acquaintances - and his past membership of the Nazi-influencing Thule Gesellschaft…
This novel provides examples of:
- All Germans Are Nazis: Averted; while displaced German Gant is a keen Nazi, fifty-eight-year-old German Jewish-born Mossad agent Joseph Solomon Smith, in refuge from Nazi persecution, fled to England.
- The Apprentice: Steadman’s young trainee Steve.
- Arms Dealer: Of weapons, Edward Gant is a renowned designer and indiscriminate supplier.
- Assassination Attempt: To prevent Middle Eastern peace, Gant plans to launch a missile at the plane of the visiting US Secretary of State. Near the shoreline, Holly finds the launcher.
- Bad Is Good: Gant says Hitler to have deplored "the Christian good" as oppositional to his mystical racial supremacism.
- Better as Friends: Steadman and Maggie were romantically involved, but remained friends.
- Big Fancy House: A highly sinister variant in Gant's North Devon estate, whose rear section is modelled on Heinrich Himmler’s Wewelsburg fortress.
- Body Double: Heinrich Himmler's suicide in British custody is depicted to have been committed by Feldpolizei corporal Heinz Hintzinger.
- The Cavalry: Baruch Kanaan, Bound and Gagged in the Wewelsburg, on release by Holly, arrives just in time to stop Gant’s ritual murder of Steadman.
- The Chosen One: Gant, castrated by a bomb explosion, believes himself to reincarnated from Klingsor, inspiration for Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: In attempt to coerce information from Steadman, Felix Kohner threatens with torture chair-bound agents David and Hannah.
- Demonic Possession: The face of elderly medium Dr Scheur briefly channels the features of Heinrich Himmler.
- Disney Villain Death: Himmler’s reanimate mummified corpse, in pursuit of the Spear, pursues Steadman outside - and falls into the flaming pit of the missile launcher.
- Emergency Authority: Through unscrupulous manipulation; terrorist arming and influential sympathisers, the Thule Society aim to steer global politics to authoritarianism whose only ultimate alternative will be their own system.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Retired police officer Blake, employed by Steadman's agency, is known to his colleagues as Sexton.
- Face–Heel Turn: Various worldwide people of socioeconomic influence are revealed to have chosen Gant’s neo-Nazism over current political corruption; notably MI5 agent Nigel Pope and World War 2 veteran Major General Cutbush, US Forces Deputy Commander.
- Fat Bastard:
- Averted with Sue, Steadman’s plump "godsend" of a secretary.
- Downplayed with Nigel Pope, whose obese bulk is unrelated to his genially subdued malignancy.
- Fright Death Trap: Mossad sleeper agent Joseph Solomon Smith, on a nightly watch of Steadman’s house, investigates an apparent break-in, and, on sight of the spectral silhouette of Heinrich Himmler, suffers fatal heart failure.
- Ghostapo: Weapons manufacturing heir Edward Gant, real name Erik Gantzer, claims to have helped introduce Adolf Hitler to Thule mysticism. While Hitler outwardly dissociated from them, Himmler remained devoted, and after the war, sought to hide the secretly acquired Spear of Longinus, whose piercing of the side of Christ is thought to have imbued it with regenerative powers. Gant's custody of the Spear helps medium Dr Scheur channel and sustain the spirit of Heinrich Himmler.
- Ghostly Chill: On approach by the spirit of Heinrich Himmler, the candlelit Wewelsburg hall suddenly turns cold.
- Haunted Technology: A Chieftain tank, spectrally propelled by Heinrich Himmler.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Into the path of the missile, Baruch pilots a helicopter.
- Heroic Willpower: Just before Himmler's mummified, reanimated fingers reach the Spear, a near-paralysed Steadman manages to lunge forward.
- Hidden Depths: Trainee private investigator Steve’s love of opera helps shed light on Gant’s fanaticism.
- Intrepid Reporter: Freelance journalist Holly Miles, with Steadman, becomes entwined in Gant's sinister machinations.
- The Lost Lenore: Mossad agent Lilla Kanaan, Steadman's colleague and romantic partner, was killed by a bomb.
- My Greatest Failure: A brutally sad example - Joseph Solomon Smith recalls his failure to challenge the SS thugs who beat, molested and dragged his family from their home.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: While he realises his own brutality will later sicken him, the bestially enraged Steadman overpowers murdering sadist Kohner; forces him into the live fireplace, and interrogatively snaps one of his fingers.
- Police Are Useless: Averted; retired policeman Sexton uses his connections to arrange an army raid on the Wewelsburg.
- Power Glows: The legendary Spear of Longinus exudes a blue glow.
- Private Military Contractors: Gant’s private, fifty-strong army, "the Soldiers of the Fourth Reich".
- Race Against the Clock: Holly and Baruch have mere minutes to stop Gant's missile.
- Revenant Zombie: Beneath Gant's recreated Wewelsburg, a crypt houses Heinrich Himmler's mummified corpse. Trained to drain the vitality of living bodies, the corpse's discarnate spirit eventually returns to its decayed earthly vessel.
- Sadist: Felix Kohner, son of a Nazi colonel, is enthusiastically well-versed in how to inflict bodily pain.
- Spooky Séance: In the hall of Gant’s Wewelsburg replica, Dr Scheur channels the spirit of Heinrich Himmler.
- Starting a New Life: Having found a decoy to be captured in his place, Heinrich Himmler, with Erik Gantzer, later known as Edward Gant are depicted to have discreetly fled to England.
- Statuesque Stunner: Kristina.
- Stupid Evil: Gant deliberately leaves Steadman in the hands of blood-crazed incompetent Kohner.
- Torture Technician: Kohner tortures David Goldblatt and Hannah Rosen.
- Under Cover Cop Reveal: Posing as a freelance journalist, Holly Miles is an undercover US agent.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Kristina's attempt to seduce Steadman is decisively halted by his realisation of her to be a hermaphrodite.
- Unstoppable Rage: When Kohner frustratedly murders the chair-bound David and Hannah, Steadman escapes the distracted Craven’s grip, and flies into a lethal rage.
- The Vamp: In ritual allusion to Richard Wagner's Parsifal, Gant has Kristina try to seduce Steadman.
- Vampiric Draining: Dr Scheur, on contact with the spirit of Heinrich Himmler, trained him to manifest by draining the energy of living bodies.
