SKINHEAD

The widely popular, award-winning mystery writer centers this page turner around the varieties of bigotry. Jonathan Atwood, 19, is jolted from the privileged lifestyle his grandfather has provided by a police phone call that lures him from his Southhampton, Long Island home to Seattletoo late to identify the mugging victim whose deathbed demand inspired the trip. Since he can't help solve the murder, the detective in charge suggests that he return home; so does a threatening phone caller. Just as he's about to board a plane, Jennifer, a university student, stops him, identifies the victim, and implores Jonathan to help solve the murder and expose the ``skinhead'' movement that caused it. His decision to stay not only endangers him but threatens his perception of who he is and what his life has meant. Recounting events in short, telegraphic sentences, Bennett lets action, rather than characterization or atmosphere, drive his story. While melodrama blunts its theme's thrust, the novel is involving and powerful. (Fiction. 14+)