TIME FIX

Eight mild spine-tinglers, each with a twist at the end: Helen sells magazine subscriptions to a ``Fortune-teller,'' then learns that the woman has been dead for weeks; terrorized by an oncoming tidal wave in his ``Dream World,'' a teenager is admitted to a mental hospital and later found dead in his bed, lungs filled with seawater; a macho hunter becomes ``The Hunted'' when he callously kills a deer and is transformed into one himself. The author stays away from explicit gore or violence in these simply written stories, and his themes—just desserts, and the dangers of arrogance—are developed unambiguously. Though more sedate than Jennings's Unreal! (1985) and its sequels, this collection will also appeal to reluctant and less practiced readers. (Fiction. 11- 15)