'The Siege'

Mild October weather entitles readers to at least one more beach book for the year, and one could certainly do worse than Stephen White's cerebral new thriller, "The Siege."

As Pledge Week for Yale's secret societies winds down, a number of "tapped" students, sons and daughters of powerful and/or wealthy parents, disappear. Elite national intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies are quickly called in when the missing students are found to be held hostage in one of the "tombs," campus-adjacent headquarters for Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, etc.

The kidnappers make no public demands, but begin to release or kill hostages apparently at random. Sam Purdy, a suspended Colorado police detective called in by one of the families, provides first-person narration, alternating with the third-person tale of Poe (FBI) and Dee (CIA) as all three work separately and then together to figure out what the kidnapper wants and how to save the lives of the remaining students.

"The Siege," though plot-driven, is equally rich in characterization so that the story is charged throughout with the felt loss of those who die and with a deep, painful anxiety for the safety of those who remain. The unexpected is the norm in this breathless, unconventional, chiller of a story that will stay with you long after the book is closed.

'The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction'

Terryl L. Givens, professor of literature and religion at Richmond University, has written a scholarly but accessible examination of the Book of Mormon, designed to acquaint interested members of the general public with "one of the most influential religious texts produced in the Western world."

Published by Oxford University Press, "The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction" is part of a series of basic texts on complex subjects. Givens begins with the text of the Book of Mormon itself, wryly repeating Thomas O'Day's observation that "the Book of Mormon has not been universally considered by its critics as one of those books that must be read in order to have an opinion of it."

Beginning with the narrators and structure of the book, Givens provides both text and helpful diagrams to show what sets of plates became what books in the published volume. The Christocentricity of the book becomes obvious in his consideration of themes. Sections on the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, its reception then and now, and the place the book occupies in LDS belief and practice round out the volume which, although marred by a surprising number of typographical errors for an Oxford book, is authoritative and clarifying.

• Laura Wadley is a librarian with the Provo City Library. E-mail her at lauraw@provo.lib.ut.us.