The Homing

Though Saul ( Guardian ) has kept up with readers' tastes by depicting far more graphic violence than he did years back, he still offers the sort of old-fashioned terrors, told without a whisper of literary experimentation, that for 17 years have made him the most consistently bestselling horror writer next to King and Koontz. His 18th novel, no exception, is a snappily paced extravaganza of insect phobia, featuring a mad scientist who doubles as a serial killer, hordes of creepy-crawlies and some threatened kids--here, teens in the oven-hot flatlands of California's San Joaquin Valley. Julie Spellman, 15, thinks she has it bad being forced to move from L.A. to the farm where her mom's new husband lives. But her real trouble starts when Carl Henderson, a crazed entomologist with a lethal thing for girls with long dark hair, arranges for the brunette newcomer to get a shot of his latest concoction. Soon the girl is gestating a swarm of mutant insects that controls her mind, grants her dominion over other insects and forces her to implant the swarm into other teens. Meanwhile, Henderson chortles as he listens to the screams of his latest homicide victim, under attack from his pet ants: ``Eaten alive! She was actually being eaten alive! '' Onslaughts of bees, termites, spiders and scorpions round out the somewhat repetitive but always intense action, which, despite an unexpectedly dark ending, will no doubt send sales of this novel--and cans of Raid--soaring. (Aug.)