Maiden's End

British author Boyle's US debut - an entertainingly peopled psychodrama with some supernatural fireworks. At the center is a glowering Carrie-style teen, whose rages at rejection cause furniture to smash around and an old obscene Evil to come back to haunt the living. Virginia Blackie glooms about still being physically immature at 16, as well as about life with her shallow, unmotherly mother Petra and super-Sandy, Petra's wealthy power-and-status-seeking new husband. It also turns out that Virginia's weak, unhappy dad, Derek (plundered by Petra of all he'd worked for), is not the haven she'd hoped for. Nobody, it seems, is about to rescue Virginia from the prospect of moving from Petra's London suburban home to "Maiden's End," that rotting pile in the deep countryside that Sandy is restoring in order to live the myth of the English country gentleman. Besides, there's something really menacing in Maiden's End. Then back in London, things begin to move, really move. Petra and Sandy's bed is treated to water and fire, furniture is agitated, and the stereo makes its own selections. Is this Virginia's doing, or her fantasy fireman hero, "William"'s - or Someone Else's? Petra is increasingly terrified but no wiser; nice Rod - whose apartment was ravaged, and on whom Virginia's devotion landed like a chest of drawers - and dad Derek are anxious and perplexed. But psychiatrist Zak (a "cold fog" of Freudian pronouncements) and Grand Materialist Sandy are impervious. Before long, the evil Presence is talking - and stalking Maiden's End. At the close, there's a breathless rescue - and a new head of a reconstituted family. Although the nasty doings are de-chilled somewhat by the author's slow roast of status-pushing life-styles, and by her monitoring of Virginia's whiny inner progress, the chat and the bumps in the night are generally diverting. (Kirkus Reviews)