Blood Country

Evocations of England's coastland and complex, fully realized characterizations are interpolated into this tautly paced novel by the author of Dead Reckoning. A fugitive encountered on the moors intrudes into the lives of illustrator Laura Sondergard and naturalist Martin Ritchie, two former lovers happily reunited after 15 years and broken marriages. The fugitive's unlikely story of nuclear terrorism and secret, high-level plans to smooth the way for a police state fails to convince Martin. Laura, however, believes the fugitive and refuses to allow Martin to contact the authorities. The rift between them deepens when events at a local nuclear reactor bear out the hunted man's allegations, and the redoubled search for him involves the lovers. As hysterical refugees flee a phony nuclear disaster, Laura and Martin make decisions that will irrevocably alter the way they see each other. The narrative moves quickly, carrying the reader past the defects of its ambitious, but occasionally improbable, plot. (Mar.)