<DIV>This fourth novel by O.H. Bennett represents a departure from his earlier work, characterized by character-rich depictions of African-American families rendered in quiet but powerfully charged prose. All of those qualities are on view in <I>Recognition</I> but with the addition of a twisting plot that gives the book a thriller-like intensity.<BR><BR>Dana, the book's single-mother heroine, is driving home one rainy evening when, as she passes a homeless panhandler, she recognizes the features of her long-absent husband. Warren Reynolds had disappeared from Dana's life a decade earlier?his body mysteriously missing after a terrible auto accident from which a pregnant Dana had to be rescued. Convinced Reynolds must have died, Dana had pushed her husband's sister and mother to have him declared deceased, and moved on with a life focused on raising her son.<BR><BR>After glimpsing the man she believes might be her husband, Dana begins surreptitiously searching for him, and in the process is plunged back into memories of the difficulties she and Reynolds were grappling with at the time of his disappearance, all while struggling with whether she can (or should) reveal her belief that her husband might be alive to her friends, her in-laws, and most importantly, her son.</DIV>