WITH A TANGLED SKEIN

Book Three of Anthony's "Incarnations of Immortality," following On a Pale Horse (Death) and Bearing an Hourglass (Time). When young Irish weaver Niobe's talented husband Cedric is murdered as part of a vast Satanic plot, Niobe descends to Purgatory to appeal to the Incarnations and Satan himself for Cedric's life. However, there's nothing to be done; so when the inconsolable Niobe is offered a position as an immortal Incarnation, she accepts—to become nubile Clotho, spinner of the thread of life, the youngest of Fate's three aspects (along with the matronly Lachesis, who measures the threads, and the crone Atropos, who cuts them). As more facets of Satan's enormous plot are revealed, the other Incarnations take a hand (readers will need good memories to recall what's been happening in the previous books). Later, Niobe decides to retire and once again become mortal; she remarries and has more children, all of whom are caught up in the plot. Then, as Satan becomes particularly threatening, Niobe is induced to emerge from retirement—where, as Lachesis, she must thwart Satan one more time by solving a hoary set of brain-teasers tricked out in fantastical disguises. Sprawling, inconclusive plotting, then, in a routine, rather lumpy drama, with none of the main issues fully explained or resolved. A frustrating affair that will appeal mainly to Anthony fans prepared to stick around for the complete series.