A Question of Belief

In her latest work of psychological suspense, Yorke lifts her keen gaze from the malfunctionings of such groups as family (Serious Intent) and neighborhood (Almost the Truth) to consider less closely connected characters who, by passing along to others the treatment they have received, whether kind or cruel, resolve themselves into a large causal daisy chain. Even though a jury acquits Philip Winter, falsely accused of rape, the trial costs him his job and his family's trust. At the same time that he decides to fake his own death and hit the road to survive by his wits, Tessa Graham, is, for her own obscure reasons, leading a petrol-bomb raid on a scientist's lab, the sort of thing she does when she's not working as a respectable solicitor or humiliating her devoted lover, Orlando. While Orlando undertakes a scheme of vicarious retribution, Philip's path crosses that of another of Tessa's helpers, Denis Smith, a youthful small-time thief who blends childlike innocence with street savvy. As Philip swaps skills and even shares an uneasy sort of friendship with the grubby teen he have would shunned only recently, the chain approaches completion and brings with it a death far more authentic than the one Philip staged. Yorke's characterization is as sharp as ever, and the action advances without a misstep; but the disparate cast fragments and slightly defuses her focus, leaving an unexpected whiff of moral to this sobering, sad tale. (Dec.)