Cold White Fury

A freak car crash that kills geneticist Tim Bolton and leaves a metal sliver embedded in the brain of his six-month-old son, Tanner, is the core of this first-rate supernatural thriller debut. Eight years after the accident, Tanner begins hearing voices--including Tim's--and the boy and his mother, Jennifer, find themselves at the center of a sinister conspiracy involving Tim's experiments. Amos loads her story with intricate details that lead to a knockout ending, and she breathes life into Jennifer and Tanner through scenes filled with maternal instinct and preadolescent innocence. This tender relationship between mother and son remains the only certainty in a novel filled with convincing twists. (Sept.)