cover image Lullaby

Lullaby

Diane Guest. Putnam Adult, $19.95 (220pp) ISBN 978-0-399-13525-5

Tissue-thin characterization, padded prose and ``convenient'' incidents make Guest's novel a near-burlesque of time-honored ghost lore. Judd Pauling and his new wife, beautiful Rachel Daimler, return to the Daimler mansion on the Maine seacoast at the news that Rachel's mother Priscilla is dying. Judd's chidren from an earlier marriage--Emma, aged 10, and Addy, six--go along. When Addy becomes possessed by a vengeful spirit, only ``superkid'' Emma, with help from Rachel's gentle sister Elizabeth, can save her. Evils proliferate as matriarchal Priscilla keeps secrets that could dispel the menace. Revelations of the ghost's motive for haunting end the novel, probably long after readers will have solved the purported mystery on their own. Troll Book Club alternate. (Apr.)