Menage

Each of three characters narrates a third of this fast-moving, double-cross thriller. Evan Beck is a 40-year-old actor living beyond his means in Manhattan. His expensive tastes, and those of his hedonist wife, Nicole, have made him desperate for money. One evening, at a stoplight a bum wipes off the windshield of his car. Through the grime, Evan sees himself. He'd been told he had a twin who died at birth, but here's the twin, aliveif not entirely well. When he tells Nicole about his double, she cooks up a plan to kill the twin, then collect Evan's huge insurance policy. They find the lookalike, Jason, clean him up and bring him to their beach house on Fire Island. It's October, and the beaches are deserted. The three eat, drink, swim and have sex. Evan steels himself to kill Jason. Point of view now switches to Jason, who recaps what's happened thus far, his experience and voice different from his brother's. He thinks Nicole wants him as her lover, and plans to kill Evan. The final section of the novel leaves the outcome deliciously ambiguous; Nicole is not sure which twin has been killed and which one survives. Neither is the reader of this absorbing, humorous and raunchy novel. Mancini, an identical twin, is also the author of The Miracle of Pelham Bay Park. (Feb.)