Chocolate Mouse

From its first rather frenzied pages, in which we are introduced to a nubile Irish widow whose insatiable sweet tooth adds an ironic twist to her compulsive mothering of her diabetic child, this is an entertaining story, developing by lively twists and turns that shock and amuse. Aggie O'Connell, a voluptuous Dublin widow who was once a Schrafft's waitress in New York, has two loves: fragile Timmy, her diabetic son, and detective Thomas Francis O'Hare, considered a great catch. Timmy is drawn to Delehanty's Sweet Shoppe (the mouse of the title is displayed in the candy store's window) and its possibly pederast proprietor; O'Hare is pleased to share Aggie's bed without matrimony. Suddenly, terrorist bombings change their lives in drastic, tragic ways, as the violent past catches up with the present, especially for O'Hare on a dangerous investigative mission. In a manner that seems uniquely Irish, first-novelist Herbst blends humor and sadness and enough indulgent sex to make this tale a captivating original. Her prose is as bittersweet and satisfying as the candy Timmy and Agnes crave. (March)