And The Angels Sing

Wilhelm ( Death Qualified: A Mystery of Chaos ) presents 12 lucid, haunting stories that combine science fiction with psychological suspense. Her characters often travel great distances--on highways and through time--to destinations which force them to confront essential truths about themselves and their relationships. In the powerful ''The Great Doors of Silence,'' Cass Mercer drives to Phoenix for a family reunion, where her three-year-old nephew's bruises cause her to recall the abuse she and her siblings endured from their father. The theme of the journey recurs with an SF twist in ''The Chosen,'' in which an expedition into the future reveals an eerily silent, forested world uncontaminated by humans; the bittersweet ''Forever Yours, Anna'' takes readers unexpectedly into the future after a graphologist falls in love with the letters of a woman he has never met. In the fantastic and oddly touching title story, a journalist nurses an otherworldly being back to health after finding it during a fierce storm. The only previously unpublished story here, ''The Day of the Sharks,'' looks at a faltering marriage and the nightmarish situation behind a seemingly idyllic Florida vacation. A memorable collection.