Prisoners

The Vietnam War haunts the memories and the Civil War haunts the family histories of characters living on the Maryland shore in this dark, bitter fifth novel (Crossover, etc.). Kiet, a 15-year-old Amerasian girl, dons Viet Cong-style black pajamas as she searches vainly for her African American father. She's on the run from the cops, who want to use her as evidence against a sexually abusive foster parent. Sheriff Alex Hallam, a white Vietnam vet tormented by his actions during the war, finds pursuing Kiet somehow therapeutic. His deputy, Russell Hallam, an embittered African American Vietnam vet, is related to Alex through a family tree with roots in the Civil War and a brutal Yankee prison camp. While the cops hunt for Kiet, the other characters wallow in self-pity and guilt, miserable about their jobs, spouses and ethnic identities. A Jewish archeologist ties the plot together, first finding evidence of murder by Civil War prison guards and later doing forensic work on MIAs in Vietnam. When the paths of Kiet and the sheriff finally converge, a killing abruptly ends their torment. Karlin's resolution, however, is neither satisfying nor convincing, and the reader is left as depressed and directionless as the characters themselves. (Oct.)