The Black Cat

Basing his second novel, like his first (Return to the House of Usher), on a classic Edgar Allan Poe short story, Robert Poe successfully (though predictably) balances the plot of the original tale with a modern story of teen rebellion and town frenzy. The protagonist of the first tale, bourbon-swilling 30-year-old journalist John Charles Poe, finds himself enmeshed in one of his ancestor's plots of terror when the wife of the local vet disappears and the townspeople of Crowley Creek, Va., want to blame the crime on the vet's new assistant--mysterious, teenaged Julie Noir--and her black cat, Asmodeus. Her accusers claim that Julie's herbal medicines, holistic healings and naked moonlit rites are part of a satanic cult; and once a horned, two-headed calf is born and cloven hoofprints appear at the scene of a vandalism, the town council passes a bylaw to banish her. John Charles supports Julie's cause even when it means risking his relationship with hair stylist Marilyn Larue. A hanged cat, a bloody ax and a walled-up corpse point John Charles, Edith and the reader in the direction of the original short story for the solution to a mystery that owes more to atmosphere than suspense. (Nov.) FYI: Like his fictional protagonist, Poe is related to the 19th-century American writer.