The Divining Rod
By Michael Knight
Dutton, $23.95
ISBN 052584379X

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Michael Knight opens his first novel, The Divining Rod, with a murder. It only takes two pages to discover that the showdown on Sam Holladay's front lawn, which kills Simon Bell, is actually the conclusion of the novel. But before you get angry with the reviewer for giving away the ending, remember it is Knight who does it.

Normally such a narrative move would sink a novel, appearing as a cheap gimmick. Knight's risk, however, pays solid dividends. Even though the reader is constantly aware of what is going to happen, Knight's slow unraveling and deliberate description make engaging reading.

Simon Bell, a lonely lawyer of 28, moves into his late mother's suburban spread. Complete with a pool and a view of the golf course, the house seems to haunt Simon, who wallows in a funk that belies his surroundings. He wonders about his mother's years-ago affair and befriends Betty Fowler, a widow who wants to learn to cuss (Simon obliges). Betty, the substitute for Simon's dead mother, walks the golf course with a divining rod, searching futilely for the gold coins her dead husband says he buried in a fairway.

Simon also begins an affair with Delia Holladay, the wife of his neighbor Sam, an older history professor. Most of the novel traces their stolen moments, hidden evenings, and blooming love. Together they search for clues to Simon's mother's affair, swim in the pool, and endlessly try to justify what they are doing.

Obviously, it ends very badly.

Knight's understated prose gives the book its power, moving slowly, but fully, though the gamut of his character's emotions -- Sam's concern that his wife is too young; Simon's overwhelming sadness; Delia's rationalizations and bald-faced lies; Betty's Sisyphus-like dedication to finding the hidden treasure.

Knight, who concurrently has published a well-received collection of short stories, Dogfight, proves himself a fresh, formidable talent in The Divining Rod, and he has breathed new life into the world's oldest story.

Mark Luce is a writer in Lawrence, Kansas.