The Sister

Neglected by their hard-living parents, fearful of the drugs and guns that overrun their high school, Madlen and her sister Debra decide to seek refuge in a nunnery. The fact that they have no trouble bluffing their way in even though they're not Catholic is only one of the many improbabilities littering the pages of this unfortunate novel by the author (under the pseudonym Adam Hall) of the successful Quiller spy series. The convent's nuns are straight out of central casting circa 1950; one of the other postulants is on the run from the Mafia and determined to seduce a handsome young priest; he in turn is fresh from the noble battle against drugs on the city streets. It all sounds like a bad parody, but Trevor appears to be painfully serious as he describes the nunnery's hidden passageways and buried secrets. Debra, the adopted younger daughter, has believed for years that Madlen is trying to kill her--though she blindly follows her older sibling anywhere and everywhere all the same. Madlen, meanwhile, lugs around a mannequin she believes is her ``real'' sister. On and on the dreary narrative goes, to a completely contrived and unbelievable ending that fails to resolve most of the dangling plot threads, including the fate of any of the characters. (Feb.)