cover image Carousel

Carousel

Linda Crockett. Tor Books, $24.95 (510pp) ISBN 978-0-312-85465-2

A hint of romantic adventure, the taste of a mystery and a mythical undertone quicken this uneven but diverting family saga-cum-fantasy novel. The somewhat ornate plot revolves around Meredith Hendricks, a Greenwich Village housewife who inherits a Greenwich, Conn., mansion from a mysterious benefactor. Secrets wreathe the mansion itself and, especially, its magnificent but dilapidated carousel, called Satan's Wheel; a wealth of folktales--replete with murders, witches, maleficent magic and Gypsy mythology--provides a strong connection between the estate's puzzles and Meredith's elusive family history. The real blurs with the fantastic; the present becomes enmeshed with the past; fairies enact rituals as an obsessed Meredith restores the carousel to its former glory. The symbolic value of the carousel is overwrought and explained in too much detail, and, more disturbingly, Crockett ( Sandman ) relies on stereotypes when portraying her Gypsy characters. In general, however, the author balances her myths and metaphors with grace and shows unusual skill in shifting among a multitude of story lines. (June)