In `The Drowning Tree,' a quirky mystery is buoyed by humanity

What draws Juno to her 15th reunion is the chance to hear her best friend, Christine, an art historian, discuss her research on a magnificent stained-glass window, designed by college founder Augustus Penrose and depicting his wife, Eugenie. Christine's lecture stuns the audience when she argues that the image on the window is actually that of Clare, Eugenie's mad half sister, and thus raises tantalizing questions about the Penrose family, supposedly good and proper Victorians.

Spending time with Christine after the lecture, Juno finds her tense and troubled. Within days, Juno and her daughter discover Christine's drugged and drowned body while kayaking on the Hudson, near the Penrose family estate.

And that's just for starters in this colorful, intricate tale. Juno's quest to learn what happened to Christine takes her on a wondrous expedition: She glimpses into the turbulent lives and emotions of Augustus, Eugenie, and Clare; investigates goings-on at the local mental hospital where she reconnects with Neil; and remembers her college days, when she, Christine, and Neil were fellow artists and daredevils. Questions within questions arise; surprising links emerge between past and present.

Though rightly billed as a thriller, "The Drowning Tree" is best read in the study rather than at the beach. Goodman's main characters are passionate artists and scholars for whom living and creativity are inseparable; their thoughts, work, and conversation are sprinkled with allusions to classical mythology, Dante, Ovid, the pre-Raphaelite painters, and the poetry of Tennyson.

Goodman also brings to the narrative her trademark meticulous attention to mood and atmosphere. She eschews swift, plain storytelling and instead, employing abundant water imagery, invests her settings with an ominous but magical quality: For example, Christine's body is discovered in a pool covered with water lilies from which bizarre statuary arises. A decaying mansion overlooks the scene.