Version and Diversion

Despite the bleak ending for almost everyone in the bookone character thinks, ""All she had to fight against was hope''this thriller is exhilarating, with great pace and bite. The story starts with the 1957 ``meet'' of top mobsters in Apalachin, N.Y. Over the next year we watch the convolutions of a small group of people in a town resembling Buffalo. Manny (``the Mover'') Petrone is the local Mob leader trying to cope with his alcoholic, frustrated wife and with running his territory. Stock car racer and car thief Link carries on his long, secret affair with a married woman. Strong-arm mobster George (annual Santa in his parish) is succumbing to syphilis and pedophilia. They and assorted other characters, none very nice but all believable, collide in a tale of stunning violence. Dialogue crackles, 1950s color is accurate, and lower-middle class life is portrayed with real grit. Fans of Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins, take note: Kelly is the new kid on one of the better blocks. (February 25)