Lorelei

The premise of Clements's engrossing third horror novel (after Children of the End) is that, over the centuries, ``the elemental power women all share'' has flowed through particular ``receptacles,'' from the Teutonic siren Lorelei (``Lurer to the Rocks'') through Cleopatra and others, including Eva Peron. The final resting place of this female power is a modern-day Lorelei, who intends to seduce a world full of enraptured men to commit an ultimate sacrifice. When a high-powered Washington, D.C., attorney disappears, his wife, Stacy Westerman, hires PI Clyde McGammon, a former FBI agent, to find him. Reluctantly accepting the case, McGammon, who has a nearly psychic ability to search out objects and people, tracks the country for the mysterious ``Madame X,'' who has been seen with people-perhaps including the missing attorney-who later were murdered and mutilated. Complicating matters is FBI chief Jack Augustine, McGammon's former supervisor, who is surreptitiously trying to ward off Westerman's search for her husband while drilling her about McGammon's progress, and who has a secret agenda of his own regarding ``Lorelei.'' Rapid pacing and well-realized characters mark this particularly chilling, if far-fetched and arguably misogynist, vision of the apocalypse. (Oct.)