CRY AT DUSK

Laura Graham, the sappy narrator-heroine of this dim gothic mystery, comes back to her hometown of Redpath, South Carolina--to attend her tenth high-school reunion . . .and to uncover The Truth about the death of her nonconformist cousin Laney, who recently drowned after a fall (jump? push?) off Crybaby Bridge. Did Laney die because of her growing obsession with Amanda Scoggins, an eight-year-old (of iffy parentage) who drowned mysteriously back in the early 1940's? (Laney claimed to have found the dead girl's locket, to hear and see Amanda's ghost--or something.) Laura starts asking questions, starts hearing (and seeing) creepy things--while various members of the posh, old, eccentric Squires family start acting suspiciously. Meanwhile, Laura is drawn to two suitors: classmate Austin Leatherwood, scion of the Squires clan (and Laney's old flame); and veterinarian Sidney Marshall, father of Laney's adorable out-of, wedlock toddler. And finally, after Laura unlocks her own suppressed memories about Laney's demise (psycho-nonsense), all the Squires family secrets come tumbling out in a clumsy, surpriseless finale. Harmless but unusually feeble fare in the imitation. Phyllis A. Whitney line--from the author of last year's Raven Rock.