Family Closets

Naturally, there's a skeleton. It's discovered in a sealed cistern when new owners raze Barbara Mullen's childhood home. The medical examination reveals that the bones belong to Barbara's Uncle Tony, missing since World War II and, it seems now, murdered during the summer of '42. Barbara, suffering from the death of her son and subsequent divorce, begins an investigation, and, with the aid of a handsome sheriff, uncovers some unpleasant secrets hidden in the pastoral farm country where she grew up. As tales of sexual betrayal and jealousy begin to surface, suspicion falls on many of the neighbors she's known most of her life. There are no great surprises or tingly suspense in Dorner's second novel (after Nightmare ), but the Wisconsin dairy country is evoked authentically, and Barbara, who learns more about herself as she learns about the people in her past, is a believable heroine. (July)