Page Turner Books

THE SHADOW YEAR, Jeffrey Ford, Wm. Morrow.  $25.95

This is the first novel I've read by Ford, a writing professor and Edgar Award winner, and I've been depriving myself obviously.  Set in a small town on Long Island in the

1960s, the strange events are seen through the eyes of a sixth grader.  A classmate disappears and a man in a large white car seems to be patrolling the neighborhood.  The narrator and his older brother keep track of these events in "Botch Town" which they construct from cardboard and clay in their basement. But soon the brothers realize that their young sister, Mary, is rearranging the clay figures and that her changes are reflected in actual events.  With the help of their sister, they investigate the disappearance of the local boy.  An odd story?  Well, yes, but so well told that it had me mesmerized all the way to the last page.

NOW YOU SEE HIM, Eli Gottlieb, Wm. Morrow.  $22.95

When Rob Castor, a writer, kills his girlfriend and then himself, the fallout is enormous. Especially in the small upstate New York town where he was born, and especially for his friend Nick Framingham who can't quite wrap his head around what has happened to his buddy.  Shocked by the death, Nick begins to reevaluate his own life, his faltering marriage, and the strained relationship with his parents.  That reevaluation is the heart of this wonderfully written novel. The brisk pace and the conclusion - which seems inevitable once you know what it is - make this a one-sitting read.  Gottlieb won several prizes for his first novel, The Boy Who Went Away.

CITY OF THE SUN, David Levien, Doubleday.  $24.95

Jamie Gabriel wakes before dawn to get on his bike and deliver newspapers in his suburban neighborhood in Indiana. But somewhere on his paper route he disappears without a trace.  Fourteen months later, his parents, on the verge of giving up hope, find Frank Behr, a private investigator who, initially reluctant to take the case, begins a relentless quest to discover what happened to the boy.  The theme of missing children is a popular one recently, but this first novel is an extraordinary take on it.  Levien writes like a pro and has created, in Frank Behr, a remarkably well-rounded and complex PI.  A hit! A palpable hit!

ANOTHER THING TO FALL, Laura Lippman, Wm. Morrow.  $24.95

Lippman has been receiving a lot of attention lately for her terrific stand-alone novels. Here she returns to her series character, Tess Monaghan, who is hired by a company shooting a television series in Baltimore.  Strange things are happening on the set and Tess is charged with watching out for the show's young lead actress.  Lippman, who is married to David Simon, creator of The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street, obviously knows whereof she writes. The story is a crackling good mystery, told with a lot of