I've just finished reading The Holy, a novel by Daniel Quinn, the author of Ishmael, My Ishmael, and The Story of B .

I wasn't disappointed. 

I picked it up while I was in Sacramento, on the strength of Quinn's name.

Reading a Quinn book is a spiritual experience. You find yourself surprised—sometimes delightfully, sometimes disturbingly—by new perspectives on topics you thought you already understood. It takes a certain sense of adventure to read him with an open mind—a willingness to allow your worldview to be challenged, to consider ideas (even if you reject them later) that you would normally not even toy with.

I always come away a little changed. A week after putting the book down, I'll find myself haunted by a seemingly innocent phrase, tossed off in the middle of a scene about something else entirely. A month later I may realize that phrase has changed my perspective on a whole area of thought.

It's all there in The Holy, with the bonus of a tense suspense yarn, and a satisfying, if unconventional, conclusion.

The story centers around a very small-time private detective who is hired by a wealthy eccentric to investigate a centuries old mystery. His story intertwines with that of a boy who sees demons, and a man who suddenly decides to leave his family and career to search for a road to nowhere.

Along the way, expect your worldview to be challenged—not about questions like the existence of demons, but about more fundamental issues of life—as in all of Quinn's books.

You may not end up agreeing with Quinn, provided you can even discern his point of view, but you won't leave thinking the same—unless you're exceptionally well-defended.