THE PASSENGER

This small town, two-by-four, ""novel of suspense"" has a youngster at the wheel of an old car he is trying to get from New York (his grandmother's house) to Ohio (his father's apartment) with the help of Carol, his passenger who is to share the driving. Instead, she involves him in a near-tragedy of a married man she'd been running away from.... Small touches keep this truer than it might otherwise seem, and women will read it -- like it.