THE WHITE MERCEDES

Readers won't be able to turn the pages of this new thriller from the author of the ``Sally Lockhart'' trilogy fast enough. Oxford native Chris Marshall falls madly in love with Jenny, but after a single sexual encounter—in which they fail to exchange surnames or phone numbers—they lose each other. Wandering the streets, never quite coming face to face, each becomes involved with Barry Miller—an outwardly respectable businessman who is actually a small-time crook who turned state's evidence and has vengeful killer Edward Carson on his trail. These four spiral about each other until the savage climax—when Jenny is gunned down in a case of mistaken identity. Pullman stretches the tension agonizingly, presaging Jenny's murder in the first sentence, revealing facts to readers but concealing them from his characters, and salting the plot with ironic twists and bitter coincidences. The contrast between Jenny, who's self-aware but emotionally wrecked by an abusive father, and Chris, who has a fundamental innocence that's both strength and weakness, gives this engrossing, tragic story rare depth of feeling. (Fiction. YA)