cover image The Site

The Site

Melisand March. St. Martin's Press, $17.95 (307pp) ISBN 978-0-312-01512-1

March's smashing thriller combines a history of actual events and places with a story that induces belief in supernatural effects. The author grew up in an apartment house at 277 Park Ave., New York City, a structure razed in 1961 to make way for one of the characterless cubes representing ""progress.'' March makes the original building home to Valerie Harris, the novel's heroine; later Valerie settles in the new building as an advertising executive. Witness to tragedies like the (real) helicopter crash that claimed several victims in 1977, Valerie becomes obsessed by the fear that ``the site'' is out for vengeance. Succeeding ``accidental'' deaths confirm Valerie's theory, particularly when she studies the history of some of Manhattan's priceless architectural treasures (Sanford White's Pennsylvania Station, the original Madison Square Garden) demolished as though they were bomb targets in a war. With the passing years, Valerie becomes more and more aware of implacable doom, right up to the final shocker in 1991. (March)