COME LIKE SHADOWS

In her latest supernatural adventure, the author of False Face (1988) goes back to the historical Macbeth for an intriguing explanation of disasters striking a Stratford, Ontario, production of ``the Scottish play.'' The book opens with the real Macbeth—far more amiable than Shakespeare's—heroically intervening in the ancient rite in which—usually—the oldest witch (the ``hag'') invades the body of a girl to become the ``maiden,'' while the former maiden becomes the ``mother'' and the mother the hag (thus the trio perpetuates its immortality). This time around, however, Macbeth and the hag are caught in a mirror, whence the hag emerges 900 years later, still seeking a victim. Her intended is Kinny, 16, assistant to the play's director (Jeneva), but not till other sinister events have paved the way. Meanwhile, Jeneva makes the politically incendiary decision to set the play in 18th-century Quebec, with Macbeth paralleling the defeated Montcalm—a subplot that reveals her character, though Katz abandons the political theme when the production moves to Edinburgh and the story of Kinny's confrontation, at the original site, with all three witches—the hag from the mirror plus the other two, in modern dress, now revealed. With the help of a young actor who's obsessed with the images of Macbeth he's seen in the ancient mirror (now a stage prop), history recurs. Along with enough stage lore to delight enthusiasts, Katz sets sharply drawn characters in an intricately and intelligently plotted tale. Despite some loose ends: a literate and satisfying thriller. (Fiction. 12+)