Paradise Motel

A virtuoso, McCormack ( Inspecting the Vaults ) holds the reader's attention as much by his style as by the story he tells . Scotsman Ezra Stevenson recalls a story about a horrifying family crime told to his grandfather in Patagonia by one of its victims. Now a journalist happily escaped from the hard life of his childhood, Ezra tries to verify the story, tracking down the four Mackenzie brothers and sisters who had been so terrifyingly abused. The search is suspenseful, as are the later-life stories he uncovers. Did they occur? Were these new victims the Mackenzie children grown up? The stories are both phantasmagorical and very real, and McCormack holds them together with a sophisticated prose rich in beautiful physical descriptions. Full of death and suffering, the novel exhilarates rather than depresses, its stark dourness vivifying rather than dulling the reading appetite. (Sept.)