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On one level, the story is a who-dunnit, but it is much more than that. "The Maid's Version" is a superbly textured novel about a community coping with tragedy and poisoned by suspicions and festering anger. It is a novel about memory and about growing old. And it is also an exploration of the nature of storytelling itself. Woodrell tells his story partly through the colloquial voices of its Ozark characters and partly through narration that manages to be both hard-boiled and richly poetic. Readers will be reminded once again why critics so often compare him to William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. ___ Online:
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Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, is the author of "Cliff Walk" and "Rogue Island."
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