Compromising Positions

When a controversial doctor is killed, the problem isn't finding a suspect but choosing from so many.

THE ABORTIONIST'S DAUGHTER

A Novel

By Elisabeth Hyde

Knopf. 285 pp. $23.95

Were it not for its fully realized characters and crisp prose, one might be tempted to see The Abortionist's Daughter as just another legal thriller for the beach. The elements are all there: a murder victim who was an outspoken abortion doctor; her attorney husband, who seems the most likely suspect; a daughter with whom the doctor had, at best, a bristly relationship; an antiabortion minister who may also have had a personal vendetta against the doctor; and the daughter's spurned lover, who appears to be dangerously disturbed.

Yet it is precisely Elisabeth Hyde's arresting prose and astute observations about family life that elevate her fourth novel to domestic tragedy. Any writer who can describe a hit on the head as a "bruise [that] was huge and ripe and living, a fat, blue-gray slug in her tangled hair," or who begins a novel with the delicious complication of a daughter who has just taken her second hit of ecstasy before picking up the phone to hear that her mother has drowned in the pool, has a talent for the closely observed detail as well as a keen sense of human failings.

With 20 years of experience as a prosecuting attorney, Frank Thompson knows better than to start tampering with evidence. Understandably, though, he doesn't have his wits about him the day his wife is found dead. "Frank Thompson couldn't tell if it was the reflection of pool water bouncing off the windows, or the shriek of his daughter over the phone, or the flapping sound of the sheet as the paramedics covered his wife that made his legs begin to wobble and shake. All he knew was that the ground beneath him was falling out from under, and he had to get down, fast, or he was going to be sick."

He fears that the shards from a glass shattered during a fight with his wife the afternoon of the murder will look bad. Predictably, he removes them, and, predictably, he doesn't get them all. Because his house has become a crime scene, he and his daughter, Megan, who has come home from college after hearing the news, must find other housing and share a life together -- even though he has found compromising pictures of Megan on the Internet and Megan has begun to suspect her father.

Across town, the Rev. Steven O'Connell, self-righteous spokesman for a coalition of antiabortion activists, discovers that he still has a pressing debate with the late Dr. Duprey on his hands: Rose, a 15-year-old pregnant girl, who had been seen and counseled by Dr. Duprey, takes up residence with the O'Connells. Branson, Megan's old boyfriend, starts stalking her, while Huck, the detective on the case, develops a relationship with her that threatens his job. It's enough domestic entanglement for Jane Austen on speed.

What works best in this novel is not the issue of abortion (duly presented and dissected from both sides) nor the revelation of the murderer but the family backstories, which reveal Hyde at her best. The dialogue between Megan and her mother is biting, edgy and dismayingly real. "Have fun killing babies," Megan tosses off as a parting zinger the last time she sees her mother. So, too, are the flashback scenes between Frank and his wife, a couple on the brink of divorce. Their fights have at times escalated to brief flurries of violent behavior. "Frank wheeled around and grabbed her arms and shook her once, hard, so that her neck snapped back. It was the second time that day someone had done this to her."

Unfortunately, the novel starts to break down about three-quarters of the way through. Readers who begin The Abortionist's Daughter with the heart-pumping thought, "This is going to be good," may find that the book's prose loses its edge near the close. Perhaps it is a consequence of the horse nearing the barn; perhaps it is simply inexperience. In either case, Hyde is an author who should be with us for some time. One hopes that this good writer will learn how to sustain her edge from the first word until the very last. ?

Anita Shreve's most recent novel is "A Wedding in December."