A Single Stone

The opening chapter of Wallace's new mystery is so much like the one in Mary Higgins Clark's Where Are the Children? that readers may experience an unsettling sense of deja vu. But they will soon be relieved to find that this well-crafted narrative has surprises of its own. When Linda Orett's young daugther, Amy, was stabbed to death, Linda was tried for the crime and acquitted on a technicality. Linda and her husband Matt have been hiding out in the California backwoods ever since, slowly rebuilding their lives and trying to conquer the grief that threatened their marriage and Linda's very sanity. Now, three years later, another child has been found murdered in the same grisly fashion Amy was--a doll, its torso slashed with an ``X,'' beside her ruined body. Soon enough, yet another child turns up missing. Realizing that it is only a matter of time until the authorities track them down, Linda and Matt--each in their own distinct ways--set out to solve these new crimes before they are accused of them, as well. Wallace, 1986 recipient of The Mystery Readers of America Macavity award for best first novel ( A Case of Loyalties ), cleverly and poignantly leads the Orettes through their paces toward a chilling denouement. (Nov.)