CHARIOT OF FIRE

An entertaining, faintly clerical caper which situates nice Henry Brock, middle-aged and -browed--late a stalwart of British Rail--in the after-regions charted by Dante, Milton, and St. John. Henry is routed by questionnaire-packing nuns to Hell's Second Circle--in life he was a mildly fornicating bachelor--but he sneaks aboard a flight for Heaven's Fourth Circle instead. This is a disastrous trip among rapidly desexing theologians. So back he heads to the infernal Second and its ""Romantic Passion lot"" with tiresome Great Lovers and rotten food. However, Henry's recent Heaven/Hell travel and railroad know-how soon give him leverage between Powers Above and Below and a third force, the Second Circle's cranky Cleopatra, still building empires. There's a battle shaping for control of Upper Hell, the Queen's new target. Satan shoots off cannon, God brings up the Chariot of Fire (read external combustion), and all hands need Henry to run the Limbo Line Railroad for transport. But as Cleopatra lists potential allies among warrior spirits (""Camilla: one breast exposed""), Henry negotiates a compromise and the status quo is saved. So also may be Henry, thanks to Limbo's ""Woman of Sumeria"" who renews his forgotten faith. A painless Christian homiletic with some inventive Upper Form hilarity.