A mystical gift throws a young teen into a thriller

Alice Hoffman has a deft skill for blending the reality of the natural world with the magical essence of the supernatural. She places the physical next to the metaphysical to explore the past's effect on the present. Previous spellbinders include "The River King," "Practical Magic" and "Turtle Moon." Her 16th novel, "The Probable Future" (Doubleday, $24.95), dazzles with its bristling examination of life's trying tests of the women of the Sparrow family. The electrifying result is an under-the-microscope look at love, friendship and the ties that blind and bind.

Turning 13 is tough for anyone — but for the Sparrow women of Unity, Mass., it's especially harrowing. Forget April as the cruelest month. For every generation of the Sparrows for more than 300 years, March is devastating. As "long as their history has been known, there have only been girl children born to the Sparrow family and every one of these daughters has kept the family name and celebrated their birthday in March." Each of the daughters is born with a supernatural ability they discover on their 13th birthday. Each must learn whether their talent is a curse or a blessing, a burden or a gift.

The Sparrow family appeared mysteriously in 1697 in the person of an unknown, unnamed 8-year-old girl. She arrived in the hamlet of Unity in the middle of March, "on the day the first snowdrops appeared" and "spoke a language no one understood."

A washerwoman christened her Rebecca. When sparrows cluster about her, she gets her surname. On her 13th birthday, she's dubbed a witch because she could feel no pain, "not if she strayed through thorn bushes, not if she held her hand directly over a flame, not if she walked barefoot over broken glass."

Stella Sparrow Avery, the main character of the novel, is Rebecca's descendant in the 13th generation. She is the first Sparrow not to have "inky hair and dark, moody eyes," born instead with "ashy hair and hazel eyes." She is the only baby born feet first, "the mark of a healer." Stella's mother, Jenny, is "independent, matter-of-fact, unsentimental, and self-reliant." At 17, she ran away from her distant and cold mother, Elinor, whose talent was being able to instantly recognize liars. Jenny could dream other people's dreams. When Jenny married Will Avery, "one of the most irresponsible men in New England," she became estranged from her mother.

When Stella turns 13 at the start of the carefully plotted novel, she discovers her own sixth sense. She has "an eye for death, an ability to read the human timetable."

She doesn't see dead people, but she sees how people die. As unsettling as this gift can be, Stella wonders if she is "only seeing a possibility rather than certain fate." While celebrating her birthday with her father at a restaurant, she shares with him the presumed knowledge that a woman there will be murdered. At Stella's urging, Will passes that information to the police, shifting the plot into a heart-rushing second gear when he is charged with the murder.

Intriguing secondary characters add further dimension: Will's scholarly brother, Matt; Elinor's doctor, Brock Stewart, and his teenage grandson, Hap; Stella's shoplifting best friend, Juliet; and Jenny's close high-school classmate, Liza Hull. Long-ago issues about lies and misalliances begin to surface. "The Probable Future" takes a series of improbable events and turns them into a thrilling adventure of literary alchemy. It is a magical mystical tour de force of pure entertainment.