Presumption of Guilt

In this taut first novel, Brown, a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, deals sensitively with a troubling and delicate subject. Charles King is a precocious, well-adjusted seven-year-old who keeps a ``vocabulary notebook'' and studies dinosaurs. But after his mother finds his blood-stained ``undies'' hidden in his room, Charles's secure world is thrown into turmoil. As his next-door neighbor and occasional babysitter, Howard, is accused of sexually abusing him, Charles tries to pacify all those throwing questions at him: his parents, doctors, lawyer, policemen, even a judge. What Charles won't tell any of them, however, is the truth: Howard didn't do it. Fine courtroom drama, the exceptionally well-wrought perspective of a confused, frightened child and an unexpected, multifacted, touching resolution make this an absolute page-turner. (May)