In her new novel Evening News Marly Swick (The Summer Before the Summer of Love) tackles the often ambiguous ties within step-families, here complicated by a handgun tragedy. When 9-year-old Teddy accidentally shoots his toddling half sister, his mother, Giselle, and his stepfather, Dan, find themselves divided by loyalties. Already fragile connections are torn further apart when Dan decides to write a book about the incident. Swick, who peppers her stories with detailed descriptions (Teddy sports a ''hideous tie-dyed lime green and purple Goosebumps shirt with a grotesque tarantula on the front''), imparts Giselle's struggle to hold things together with unflagging precision and unsentimental compassion. B+
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