University of Pittsburgh theater professor Kathleen George has once again written a masterfully plotted crime novel featuring Pittsburgh homicide detective Richard Christie.

But in this fourth book, she outdoes herself in another of her strong suits -- vivid characters. The four young people who carry this novel are the most compelling kids I've encountered in 40 years of reading mysteries. They continued to haunt and entertain me for days after the final page was read.

They are the Philips family:

Meg, "almost fourteen"; Joel, "almost twelve"; Laurie, "almost eleven"; and Susannah, 7.

"You could just say what age you really are," a curious man said to Joel after the youth enumerated the "almost" ages one day.

As the book opens, these intelligent, high-achieving and creative orphans have been abandoned by their stepmother. They are desperately trying to find a way to stay together and avoid foster care. Within hours of their stepmother's walkout, the three oldest have come up with odd jobs to put food on the table.

But they out-do themselves after Joel stumbles across a murder scene stemming from the big drug operation Christie's detectives are investigating. One man is dead; another has a broken leg. He gives the boy $20 for water, food, a bandage and booze, but Joel gives it to Meg for food.

The suspicious sister visits the crime scene and discovers the wounded man is Nick Kissel, a pizza shop attendant who once gave her food. She and Joel decide to keep his secret and help him out.

Why, the younger sisters ask, and Meg answers: "We owe him. This food is bought with his money."

They bundle him to their home for treatment and learn that his gambling and alcohol addictions have led him into the grip of the murderous drug lord who now wants him killed.

The police also want to talk to Nick, and eventually they find the orphan family. The kids reluctantly admit they have been on their own and that Nick has fled town.

Christie, who is struggling to work between chemotherapy treatments for leukemia, takes on the additional task of getting them help.

There are other subplots that add to the richness of this book, including the story of another interesting teen who risks his life to quit selling drugs.

But subplots are a staple to police procedurals; George's elegant writing, like that of the following early passage, is rarer in this genre:

"Images of her own mother came to Meg. Little bits. The way she moved, as if she were onstage. Lighting a cigarette, blowing out a long stream of smoke, putting the cigarette down in an ashtray. Fingers through her hair, a hip out, her sassy pose ... ."

The dialogue, spoken by some characters in pure Pittsburghese, also is crisp and natural. Quite simply, there are no weaknesses in this book.

"Joe." "Mae West." "Zotzed." "What's the crop?" "Close your heads."

If you understood those slang words and idioms, you either were old enough to drink a cup of java during World War II or you've already sampled Kathryn Miller Haines' Rosie Winter mysteries.

I hope it's the latter, for Haines, a Pittsburgh actress, director and award-winning playwright, always provides a good read.

In this one, her third in the series, Haines' heroine, a Broadway actress, and her best friend, Jayne Hamilton, have joined a USO tour to entertain the troops in the Pacific.

But Rosie also has an ulterior motive. She wants to find out what has happened to her ex-boyfriend Jack, who is missing in action.

It's a big war zone, but the USO company, which hops from island to island, meets a lot of soldiers, sailors and pilots who know even more soldiers, sailors and pilots, some of whom may have heard of Jack.

But murder gets in the way of Rosie's quest. Twice. And both of the victims are actresses. One of them is just coming up through the Hollywood studio system; the other is the famous Gilda DeVane, who is killed during a USO show.

A Japanese sniper is blamed, but Rosie doesn't buy it.

And that's not all she isn't buying. Rosie also is having trouble matching the personal hatred the officers, servicemen and fellow performers direct at the enemy. But she keeps that antiwar sentiment to herself, thinking, "After all, the last thing anyone wanted to hear was that the people we were hoping to kill were just like us."

The pacing of the book lags in a couple of spots and a few of the clues are a bit obscure, causing this reviewer to read the denouement a second time.

But, overall, "Winter in June" is a terrific summer read. That's especially so when you consider it includes her usual dead-on re-creation of an American culture at war in 1943 and quality writing, particularly when she's describing the beauty of the Pacific islands.

Kathryn Miller Haines and Kathleen George will sign their books Friday at 7 p.m. in the Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont.