OCTOBER MOON

Originally published in Ireland, a thriller set near Dublin. Rachel, 15, and her parents have come to vacation on a stud farm they've just added to the string they already own in America, Argentina, and Australia. Even before they arrive, fires have been set on the property. Malicious acts multiply, directed especially at Rachel: Her waterbed is slashed, bricks hurtle through her bedroom window. Is it because the locals resent the American intrusion, or is something more sinister afoot? The police are determinedly disinterested, and Rachel is unaccountably reluctant to mention the redheaded siblings she suspects of initiating the attacks. And then we meet the werewolves. The well-paced events escalate to a grisly surprise ending that will delight teenaged fans of the genre, who won't care if the voices aren't authentically American or that the boy who glares malevolently at Rachel for three-quarters of the book has been trying to help her all along. Good fun. (Fiction. 11+)