Icewater Mansions

Allyn (Motown Underground) plumbs the deep secrets of a small town on Michigan's upper peninsula in this action-packed tale of shipwreck salvages, murder and an intricate struggle between families. When her father dies, Michelle Mitchell leaves the Texas Gulf and her work as a deep-water welder for her father's cabin on the shore of Lake Huron and his seedy bar, the Crow's Nest. From Mitch's arrival up north, when she pitches a chair through the bar's front window, Allyn suggests that you might go home again, but the process can be bruising. Mitch discovers that her dad, a tough old codger who was not above an illegal salvage or two, died under suspicious circumstances. She learns that her son (who spends the length of the book at boarding school), whom she bore after being raped by wealthy local Alec Devereaux, was the object of mysterious, unsavory dealings between her father and the Devereaux family. Although the plot follows a wild course and Allyn barely gets below the surface of his characters, he brings the lake to life-especially in a suspenseful, chilling description of a dive that figures in the resolution. (Mar.)