Graven Images

In Waterhouse's stylish, powerful tale of suspense (after Playing for Keeps), bestselling true-crime writer Garner Quinn takes a no-nonsense approach to life, slicing through the humdrum with well-placed zingers. In fact, one of this lady's more captivating characteristics is her bitchy sense of humor, expressed in asides scattered throughout her savvy, sometimes cynical narration. But Garner is credibly human, too--a divorcee who struggles to shield her teenaged daughter from society's monsters and who has never reconciled her ambivalent feelings toward her father, a celebrated lawyer. (Their estrangement was exacerbated when Garner's first book questioned the verdict in a murder trial in which he was the defense attorney.) Now Garner is disturbed by another verdict: a South Carolina farmboy thought to be a serial killer is pronounced not guilty. Reluctantly, she moves on to another case--and another book--about a sculptor whose life-sized works have been found to conceal human body parts. In a rip-roaring finale, Waterhouse ingeniously dovetails these crimes; and, in the meantime, her nuanced writing, fully realized characters and concern for human frailties add up to an absorbing read. Literary Guild, Mystery Guild and Doubleday Book Club featured alternates. (Oct.)