We count on T.C. Boyle to take us into worlds that are out of the ordinary. From the Kellogg cereal family's dubious turn-of-the-century "health spa" in "The Road to Wellville" to Alfred Kinsey's sex research in "The Inner Circle," he lures us into times and places we don't live in and lets us walk around for a while.

Boyle's 11th novel takes us into darker territory. In order to alleviate anxiety, I recommend readers run a quick credit check on themselves before they dig in.

		"TALK TALK" By T.C. Boyle. Viking ($25.95)

Through his main character, a determined, deaf woman named Dana Halter, Boyle takes on identity theft. Not just the someone-stole-my-credit-card-and-charged-a-lavish-trip-to-Borneo theft, but instead, a total ripoff -- someone living your life, with your name and your credentials, on a parallel track to your own.

By the end of the first short chapter, Dana has run a stop sign, been handcuffed, arrested, and put into a holding cell for the weekend.

The reason? William Peck Wilson, a washed-up restaurateur, has taken on her identity, amassed bad credit and outstanding warrants in multiple states.

He owns a Marin County, Calif., oceanside condo in her name, calls himself Dr. Dana Halter and lives a high life just hours from where Dana teaches English at a high school for the deaf.

Why? Dana has a desirable profile: Immaculate credit and a Ph.D. The kind of standing that can go far with banks, credit-card companies, and potential lovers.

What Wilson doesn't count on is her stubbornness or boyfriend Bridger's ability to drive for days without sleep. He's an endearing, geeky hipster film technician adding digital special effects to movies.

Wilson doesn't count on these two sleuthing into his life, turning the tables as they stumble after him in hot pursuit across the country.

But this novel is more than a chase for redemption. Boyle successfully draws the reader in, so that we feel the tension of Dana's isolation in her silent world, Bridger's isolation in his world of tedious film technology, Wilson's isolation as he lives within stolen identities and fabricated lives.

We sympathize with both the good and bad guys. These worlds collide in unexpected ways and make this book a thriller, a page-turner formed by a master's hand.

Boyle is sharp with details, bringing us into a crisp scenes and, by switching points of view chapter to chapter, he allows his readers to eavesdrop on the diverse motivations and lives of the characters.

He's especially convincing in relaying the day-to-day life of a deaf person, a combination of sign language, faulty lip reading, and too-loud vocalizations:

"She finger-spelled his name and it was both an intimate and formal gesture, intimate because it named him instead of pointing the right hand and index finger at him to say 'you' and formal because it had the effect of a parent or teacher announcing displeasure by reverting to the full and proper name ... 'Bridger,' she signed, 'you're not communicating.' "

The cross-country story races through the diverse cultures that make up America, from roadside diners to taquerias to Italian pizza joints; Marin County condos to cramped New York apartments; from techno-music clubs, deaf schools, basement film industries, and mega shopping centers.

Boyle writes with such authority it's a pleasure to bite your nails the whole way through.