Rainy North Woods

Kohler, a reporter in Oregon, makes a resounding debut with this raffish, comic, fearsome melodrama. Eldon Larkin and Shelly Sherwood cover events for a scandal sheet in damp Port Jerome on the Northwest coast. Hearing that Hector the elephant has crushed to death a Vietnamese immigrant named Xuan, go-getter Shelley and the less driven but smitten Eldon rush in for the story. The reporters meet Mr. Pugh, a dotty old man building a tower to guide UFOs on a hillside near a community of Vietnamese refugees. As rumors of a human agent behind the fatal tromping circulate, so does talk about other cases of murder, spurring Eldon to defy his less-than-macho instincts. He is only a step behind Shelly as they play their roles among the large, eclectic crew the author controls like a ringmaster under the Big Top. Hector, who pays a ghastly price for killing Xuan, Big Foot, appearing in person, and Pugh's alien visitors are among other implausible but convincing marvels that decide the outcome of Kohler's crackerjack tale. (Feb.)