And the Angels Sing: Stories

Wilhelm ( Death Qualified: A Mystery of Chaos ) presents 12 lucid, haunting stories that combine science fiction with psychological suspense. Her characters often travel great distances--on highways and through time--to destinations which force them to confront essential truths about themselves and their relationships. In the powerful ``The Great Doors of Silence,'' Cass Mercer drives to Phoenix for a family reunion, where her three-year-old nephew's bruises cause her to recall the abuse she and her siblings endured from their father. The theme of the journey recurs with an SF twist in ``The Chosen,'' in which an expedition into the future reveals an eerily silent, forested world uncontaminated by humans; the bittersweet ``Forever Yours, Anna'' takes readers unexpectedly into the future after a graphologist falls in love with the letters of a woman he has never met. In the fantastic and oddly touching title story, a journalist nurses an otherworldly being back to health after finding it during a fierce storm. The only previously unpublished story here, ``The Day of the Sharks,'' looks at a faltering marriage and the nightmarish situation behind a seemingly idyllic Florida vacation. A memorable collection. (Feb.)