BREAKING THE RING

Though Jesse, 15, and her family have returned to summer on the St. Lawrence River after many years' absence, they quickly settle into familiar patterns. Then Jesse, with her younger sister Emma and best friend Maggie, locates a hidden stash of cocaine. They leave it alone, but their proximity to the hiding place is noted by members of a drug ring; when the cocaine is later missing, the girls, blamed by the smugglers, are thought to be in danger. Several coincidences later, the ring is ``broken,'' the girls safe. Characters, relationships, and the splendid setting are all wonderfully well realized in this first novel; unfortunately, the plot's intrigues and machinations are overabundant and the finale is rather flat. Atmospheric, if occasionally tiresome. (Fiction. 12+)