"The day she left her keys on the counter at the Stuyvesant Post Office was not the first time [Steve Dant had] seen her. He had, in fact, watched her carefully for three months. It wasn't perverted, obsessional curiosity that compelled him to note each detail of her movements as she collected her mail. It was simply in his nature to observe."

So begins "The Secret Keepers" by Julie Mars, the premiere publication of GreyCore Press in Pine Bush, NY. If that opening isn't enough to hook you, add that the woman-whose name, Dant discovers, begins with a 'C'-lives alone, works in a 14th Street bar, is being trailed by a paunchy yet rather expert detective, has encounters with a powerful, vindictive ex-husband and she has a secret.

Dant's obsession escalates, and how he justifies it to himself is as chilling as his enactment of it. The novel is highly atmospheric, taking us into the heart of Manhattan, which is in itself a wild dark secret, full of unexpected beauty and gritty compromise.

Mars writes about the New York City I knew during my ten-year tenure there-a place of lilac smells and exhaust; of relationships that spring up with homeless people and elderly ladies and junkies; a place where danger is woven into the fabric of every day living, as is a sense of unfathomable mystery; a city that embodies enormous kindness as well as staggering indifference; a spooky flat wilderness where a young woman could drink herself blind on a park bench and shift her life almost beyond her will. In Mars' New York, walking in the city is like an endless series of little one-act plays-the pizza man, the stoop sitter, the eccentric man who looks like a circus performer using the phone booth. A city of sounds, of traffic and wheels and conversation, of sirens and surprise. A place where angels can turn into demons, and vice versa.

Unfortunately, Mars falls shy of meeting the potential of "The Secret Keepers." At some point she veers away from the really hair-raising edge of Dant's obsession and the book's secrets, and begins to smooth out all of the feathers she has raised. I found the second half of the book less compelling and less believable than the first. The characters continued to engage me, but they no longer left me at the edge of my seat. The ending is a bit of a soft shoe compared to what comes before.

And yet, maybe that's just me-maybe I objected to the idea that things could turn out less than disastrously. For the most part, I gobbled up this book, and when it ended I wanted to begin at the beginning again for the sheer pleasure of its breathtaking language and imagery.

All the characters in this tender novel collectively comprise 'the secret keepers.' Each, in his or her own way, must come to terms with what they keep hidden before they can get on with their lives. But who are the good guys, and who are the bad? The lines keep shifting, and the novel's true subject may be that all of us are comprised of many parts, hidden and exposed, and it is those parts that are allowed to come to light-and to flourish-that determine who we are.

"The Secret Keepers" is Mars' first novel. She has published in a number of magazines including New York Press and County Living, and she has taught at New York University, the State University of New York, Pratt Institute and Sullivan County Community College. She is currently participating in the doctoral program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Mars is a major new talent and GreyCore Press has made a most promising beginning. "The Secret Keepers" can be found in local bookstores and libraries and on the web at www.amazon.com. GreyCore Press can be reached at 914/744-5081 (phone) or 914/744-8081 (fax).