cover image Mystic Lakes

Mystic Lakes

Damian Musello. Dutton Books, $17.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-55611-046-7

Having served hard time for a youthful ""indiscretion'' involving romantic rhetoric and pipe bombs in the '60s, Derek Anderson wants nothing more than an ordinary lifea house, his job in Boston as a private investigator and enough cash to stay afloat. In the cold light of the '80s it seems clear that a visit from his old lover Marion, still on the run from the FBI for a host of crimes committed in the name of the people, will rock the boat he has so painstakingly righted. And while Derek's compromises have left him disengaged and slightly cynical, living on the underground circuit has only hardened Marion's belief that the American political system is rotten and can only be changed by acts of violence. Those who remember the '60s as a complex decade of dreams and enormous, sometimes frightening social upheaval, will be pleased that this first novel rarely settles for a starry-eyed trip down memory lane. The book shifts easily between then and now, and Musello's wry, half-hard-boiled tone is neatly balanced by a wonderful cast of characters strugglingin varying degreesto fit their different brands of idealism into the shape of life in the '80s. Although the ending is a bit predictable, it is also thoroughly satisfying. (January 28)