A Life for a Life

D'Ray Reid, the hero of this initially suspenseful but ultimately frustrating coming-of-age novel, undergoes a miraculous transformation and emerges in the end a new man after some crime-filled years. D'Ray is 15 when a local drug dealer threatens to kill his younger brother unless he comes up with $100 within an hour. Panicked and desperate, D'Ray decides to hold up a convenience store--but, in the process, he kills another African American teenager who tries to foil the holdup. He escapes and makes a living as a pimp before he's caught and sentenced to six years in jail. Needless to say, D'Ray comes from a dysfunctional family. Hill's (Satisfied with Nothin') depiction of an African American family trapped in poverty in rural Louisiana is stark and candid. He has a sure hand with pacing and he renders pitch-perfect dialogue that instantly establishes character and fuels the plot with tension. It's only when D'Ray goes to jail and finds God (with guidance, incredibly, from Mr. Henry, the father of the dead clerk) that he becomes an unbelievable character and the novel drifts into hokum (""`Come home with me,' Mr. Henry said. `Be a credit to your race.' `The next Thurgood Marshall,' D'Ray mumbled contemplatively""). The workings of grace may be mysterious and difficult to foreshadow; in this case, they are simply hard to swallow. Author tour. (Aug.)