Whalesinger

Readers may well need a harpoon to pin down the subplots that swoosh through this hybrid fantasy/romance/adventure/problem novel. A tentative bond forms between Marty, a keenly perceptive teen who thinks she's stupid (she's learning-disabled), and Nick, a high schooler filled with rage because his brother has been killed in a shipboard explosion. Both are spending the summer with a team of marine conservationists that includes Ray Pembroke, the man Nick irrationally blames for his brother's death. Marty magically communicates with a whale that fears a repetition of a terrible accident that occurred centuries before, when Sir Francis Drake and his band visited the area, the record of which has been preserved in ``whale song.'' Then Marty and Nick suspect that Pembroke is conducting an illegal search for sunken treasure on one of Drake's ships. Will the whale's fears be realized? A veritable bouillabaisse of fishy plot developments--some lovemaking between Marty and Nick, a natural disaster or two, and what is almost literally a cliffhanger--further indicates that Katz ( Witchery Hill ) has gone overboard. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)