The Narrowing Stream

John Clifford Mortimer. Penguin Books, $7.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-14-014421-5

The life of a faithful wife and mother is unsettled after a mysterious man implicates her husband in a young woman's murder. PW suggested that this early novel, ``though elegantly written, proves ultimately understated and tenuous rather than emotionally gripping.'' (Dec.)

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