The past rises from its ashes

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." -- English writer L.P. Hartley

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." -- American writer William Faulkner.

Jordan Weiss, the protagonist of "Almost Home," Pam Jenoff's captivating and touching third novel, learns to her sorrow that both writers had it right.

Ten years ago, Jordan was happy in England, where she was a postgraduate student and coxswain at Cambridge University. But when her boyfriend and fellow crew member, Jared Short, drowned, she returned to the United States, took a job as a State Department intelligence officer and worked in a number of dangerous places, always trying to outrun the ghosts of tragedy and vowing never to return to England.

But now she learns that a dear friend in London is terminally ill with Lou Gehrig's disease, and she requests a transfer to London. Not long after arriving, she and another former crew member, Chris Bannister, receive proof that Jared's death was no accident.

Meanwhile, Jordan has been assigned to investigate the workings of Albanian organized crime in the United Kingdom.

The two investigations -- one personal, one professional -- put Jordan and her friends in grave danger, and connections between the two arise with scary frequency as Jenoff keeps the reader spellbound by her clever plot in which one is never quite sure who is trustworthy.

But plot alone does not carry "Almost Home." The characterization of Jordan -- strong, vulnerable, brave, fearful, haunted -- above all, human -- adds dimension to what could have been an above-average but still middle-brow thriller. And Jenoff's writing rises far above the pedestrian:

Arriving in London, Jordan observes: "There was always something crisper about the air here, more alive. The sky is different too -- it seems closer than at home, a cap pulled low and tight around the brow. In my memories, the weather here was eternally cloudy and gray. But the sky is a hypnotic field of intense, unbroken blue and the sun shines brightly now, mocking my fears."

Jenoff tells this story in the present tense, a tricky conceit but one that adds immediacy to the novel -- and one she brings off triumphantly.

The author, now an attorney in Philadelphia, is a former special assistant to the secretary of the Army and a former State Department officer. Her work experience informs the novel with a welcome verisimilitude, as does her use of the Balkans conflict as a major plot point.

An elegant blend of thriller and women's fiction (but certainly not chick lit, and likely to appeal to both sexes), "Almost Home" is a pleasurable and literate read, conceived with imagination and executed with dexterity.

Contact Jay Strafford at (804) 649-6698 or .