In the Rosary Garden

As graduation looms, Alison "Ali" Hogan and her best friend, Carmen "Fitz" Fitzgerald, the heroines of British author White's impressive debut, are eager to move on from St. Brigid's, a Catholic girls' school in 1980s Dublin. Dying for a smoke, Fitz sneaks off to the Rosary Garden, her and Ali's haven away from the nuns. As soon as she's able, Ali sneaks off too, only to find a near hysterical Fitz standing over the body of a dead infant. White plays it cool, helping the reader conjure the full range of gruesome and titillating implications of a dead baby in a convent garden. As suspense builds and poor%E2%80%94literally and figuratively%E2%80%94Ali becomes Det. Insp. Vincent Swan's prime suspect, she emerges as a virtual poster child for all that was wrong about Ireland's sexual mores in the late 20th century. Family secrets and the headline-hungry media also figure in this well-crafted mystery. (Oct.)