DEEP VALLEY

A much better than average first novel, which wont sell itself, but which will reward some special attention. An unusual book, sad, affecting, which may well appeal to those who liked Moontide. A story of two against the world, set in California's bleak, isolated Big Sur country. The two are Libby, lonely, set apart by a girlhood in a house of hatred, where her mother and father never spoke; and Barry, her first contact with an outside world, when he comes through as part of a convict chain gang working on the new highway. It is a case of love at first sight -- he escapes and they find reality in a deserted house, where they hide out. There are days of stealth, of terror, of violence when Harry shoots a man to avoid recapture. They retreat further into the hills -- Libby, pregnant, stays with a sympathetic couple. At the last, Harry returns to fight a forest fire, and gives his life to save others, and to redeem the future for Libby and their child. Skillfully done, but limited in market.