Such a character is Robie, the odd young man who lives with his sister in a decaying apartment and regularly rides about town gathering returnable bottles and cans in the makeshift trailer he tows behind his bicycle. Robie and his sister may hold the key to helping McMorrow find the missing man. This minor point has, over the course of five books, been an irritating distraction. Boyle uses the word ''frig'' where in normal conversation one might find a rougher word. The following page contains eight.
Real people use bad words.
Authors should show restraint in writing profanity, but in this case the substitution merely draws attention to the omitted word. McMorrow's chance encounter at a hotel bar with a lonely Quebecois housewife is touching and memorable. Steven Steinbock is a free-lance writer who lives in Yarmouth.