Mistaken

A case of mistaken identity sets the plot in motion in this meticulous, well-crafted novel from author and filmmaker Jordan (Interview with the Vampire). Kevin is growing up in working class North Dublin when unexplainable things begin to happen: strange girls press their hips against his in the dance club%E2%80%94asking him why he hasn%E2%80%99t called%E2%80%94and men offer him cigarettes, despite his never having smoked. Eventually, it becomes clear that Kevin is being mistaken for another, a boy named Gerry from the wealthier side of town, who attends a posh school. Initially frightened, Kevin begins little by little to take advantage of these bizarre circumstances. Having led a young woman who insists they know one another down to a grassy section of the dunes, he%E2%80%99s momentarily stumped, then lets %E2%80%9Cthe imagined him%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94the other%E2%80%94%E2%80%9Ctake over.%E2%80%9D Kevin and Gerry meet as adolescents, and so begins a lifetime%E2%80%99s worth of chance encounters, misunderstandings, and intermittent life-swapping, culminating in a %E2%80%9Cshared%E2%80%9D crime, that, as Kevin says, Gerald %E2%80%9Cwanted%E2%80%9D but he (Kevin) %E2%80%9Cexecuted.%E2%80%9D As one might expect from a seasoned filmmaker, the novel is well plotted and mysteries are revealed at a tantalizing pace. Nor is Jordan a slouch on the sentence level; the language is precise and evocative, with Dublin itself lovingly rendered in all its gray complexity. (Jan.)