Janice Witherspoon's settled, rather boring life implodes when her boyfriend, Private Danks, is killed while serving his tour in the desert. Despite a certain ambivalence about their relationship (which she's sure he shared), she's compelled out of her routine, into her car and on a trip that will change who she is.

With Private Danks' banjo in her car and a migraine that won't let go of her skull, Janice settles into an abandoned lockhouse in rural Pennsylvania. Gradually, she is moved to meet the people around her -- but continues to suffer from the migraine. Added to it now are the voices playing constant melodies in her head, and the feeling of being threatened. She can't find her way through the mixture of images and people, but somehow, she knows her story will fit together.

THE LOCKTENDER'S HOUSE is an interesting read, once you pull yourself past the first 80 or so pages. Don't get me wrong -- the life in Janice's head is bizarrely interesting, but readers will find themselves wondering where the story is going. About one-quarter of the way through the book, you'll begin to see glimmers of the fruition of all the possibilities that are dealt in the first chapters. Mr. Sherrill has a lyrical, dark feel to his writing in THE LOCKTENDER'S HOUSE. But I just couldn't delve through the pages to get to the core of this book.