Red Rover (2007)

In this haunting novel set in the Montana plains, one brother, a ruined FBI man back from WWII, dies and another, a B-29 bomber pilot, lives. Seems like a sad but straightforward setup. But Deirdre McNamer shakes up this snow globe of a story, and spends careful time with all of her many characters, however ancillary they seem early on. While Red Rover's narrative hums along, steadily accumulating tension, you may be struck dumb by McNamer's acute observations of place. She describes Christmas decorations at a small-town church as ''children's paper snowflakes that twirled dreamily in the rustlings and exhalations of the packed room.'' One to savor. A-