Never Walk Behind Me

Summerfield's ( Count the Days ) strained second novel introduces an apparently normal English family that is in fact struggling with its own twisted psyches. At 18, narrator Rowena Farraday fancies herself in love with her accomplished older brother, Simon. And because she--and her sister, Margaret--are Simon's adoptive siblings, she sees no obstacle to a future with him. When Simon brings home a gorgeous German girlfriend, Rowena is consumed with envy and schemes to remove her. She accidentally discovers a shocking secret: her natural parents were not killed in a car accident, as she and Margaret were told; her mother murdered her father and later died in prison. Rowena's subsequent behavior smacks of The Bad Seed , and when she finally emerges from what could charitably be interpreted as a volatile period, she discovers that she's not the only one to have inherited her mother's instability. Still more skeletons are exhumed from the closets before this awkward and stale story reaches its conclusion. (Apr.)