DEADSTICK

A sure-handed debut introduces failed seminarian/current law- firm researcher Owen Keane, a questing young man often at emotional/philosophical odds with his attorney boss Harry, a college chum, and with his quasi-girlfriend Marilyn, a relentlessly pragmatic librarian. Here, Harry assigns Owen the task of handling client Robert Carteret's request: discover what caused the 1941 plane crash that killed his brother William and his debutante- fiancÇe Lynn. The reclusive Carteret, who makes Howard Hughes seem gregarious, is hidden away on his Long Island estate, while his family fortune is being managed by tough-minded businesswoman Carolyn Vernia. Owen's research leads him to a war-trauma analyst who treated Robert Carteret and, it turns out, forged the request to reopen the '41 episode. Was it an accident or—worse—a double murder? Is that Robert hidden away in the mansion—or William? A trip to the plane-crash site in a New Jersey pine forest ultimately explains all, though the facts can't be verified. Owen, a detective-fiction aficionado, a lifelong windmill tilter, enlivens a rather simple story, particularly in his relationships—with people/his career/life in general.