Raven

This smooth, sophisticated and frightening novel from the author of Stunts is set in a backwood motel lounge owned and run by Neil Maclaren, a former state trooper. The random group of people gathered at Maclaren's Food and Lodging on a snowy night to celebrate engagements or rest from a trip to the country expects nothing unusual, not even when a raven is seen watching them. Then a drunken man leaving the bar is shot dead by a man dressed in black, who leaves no tracks in the snow. With all means of escape blocked and the man in black still watching, the customers turn to Neil to save them. When he proves to be no TV cop-show hero, they turn on him and one another, while the man in black waits outside. The eventual supernatural explanation of the events in this superior work of suspense is handled with a light touch reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's. Grant's starkly poetic prose adds atmosphere and style and puts the reader right in the motel lounge with the fully realized characters, feeling fear, hope, anger and despair right along with them. (Mar.)