Rough Beast

Treading territory already staked out by John Saul and Dean Koontz, Goshgarian (Atlantis Fire) fashions an above-average thriller, reaching into the genre toolbox to use an imperiled child and biotech terror. When an enigmatic house hunter offers Calvin and Terry Hazzard nearly 10 times what they paid for their suburban Boston home, they are distracted momentarily from their concern over 12-year-old son Matt's increasing belligerence and developmental anomalies. Meanwhile, contract assassin Jerry Mars begins snooping into the backgrounds of his most recent hits and finds that all participated in Black Flag, a top-secret germ warfare project hatched during the Vietnam War and now a political embarrassment for several government bigwigs. Goshgarian telegraphs the fact that Mars and the Hazzards are working from opposite ends of the same mystery to an inevitable conclusion. But, though the plot is short on surprises, the story is buoyed by sharp characterizations of its principal players, especially of the pathetic and frightened Matt, struggling to understand his physical and emotional transformation as a consequence of his home's buried legacy. The boy's final metamorphosis into a genetic nightmare pushes the novel over the top and into a corner, necessitating a perfunctory tying up of its flailing loose ends. Until that point, however, this is a solid and suspenseful cautionary tale that expertly blends political intrigue and domestic drama. (Nov.)