BOOK REVIEW : Tension Skyrockets in Chilling Adventure : GONE <i> by Kit Craig</i> ; Little, Brown $14.95; 288 pages

When the young Hales awaken on a Saturday morning to find their mother away, 15-year-old Michael and his 16-year-old sister Teah stay cool. Only Tommy seems troubled, but he’s just 4--too young to appreciate a few extra hours of sack time.

Not that their mom isn’t terrific, but she can be firm about such things as job obligations, hair lengths, junk food--the usual. So Michael and Teah don’t panic.

Ever since their naval officer father was declared missing in action, all the Hales have learned to be self-reliant. Their mother, Clary, is an artist, and she could be out sketching or at the framers.

Although she usually leaves a note, she probably thought she’d be back before they got up. Fixing breakfast, Michael sees that his mother has left a couple of casseroles in the fridge, so they’re obviously not going to starve.

Even so, Michael can’t quite relax. For one thing, the dog is sick; for another, Tommy slept until 10, and when Michael went in to get him, his bed was full of new toys--the plastic stuff Mom flatly refuses to buy.

Suddenly uneasy, Michael tries the messages on the answering machine. The cleaning lady, Shar Masters, isn’t coming in--but Saturday isn’t even her day. Old Miss Ferguson rambles on, and then he hears a strange man’s voice saying “Be ready.” That does it. Michael Hale is scared and, soon, so is super-sophisticated Teah. Although a naval officer’s children are brought up to realize that a father can vanish, mothers are forever.

Most kids would call their grandparents or their mother’s best friend, but Clary Hale has never known many other officer’s wives. After their dad disappeared, they really disconnected themselves from the base; it was easy, because the Hales had never lived right on it. Their father’s parents are dead, and they’ve never met their mother’s--strange, but not as peculiar for a Navy family on the move as it would be for civilians.

They have one of the casseroles for dinner, but when there’s still no word from Clary, Michael goes through his mother’s bureau and finds her parents’ Baltimore address. Shar drops by with an apology for not coming in to clean. Homely as a skillet, she had acquired a new boyfriend, and when he stood her up, she realized that Clary Hale was really the only person who’d ever been good to her. Feeling guilty when she sees the kids on their own, Shar offers to drive them to Baltimore.

Although the Hale’s story moves along briskly, it’s interspersed with the disturbed thoughts of a mystery man. Of course there’s a connection between Clary Hale and this person, but it is presented with the utmost control--hints, omens and allusions combining to tantalize and terrify the reader without giving away the denouement. “Gone” is a one-sitting book defying the reader to budge until the end.

Whenever we begin to enjoy the adventure story, there’s another and more specific monologue, fleshing out the profile of the dangerous sociopath who has stalked and captured Clary Hale. We hear from her as well, identifying with her desperate plight. When the grandparents’ address turns out to be an empty lot, the tension skyrockets.

After spending the night with the next-door neighbor and her brow-beaten husband, the little group continues south, following the only lead they have--the husband’s mention of a small Florida town. Although these neighbors aren’t exactly garrulous, they obviously have memories of Clary Hale as a child.

Florida begins to make sense. Lately, when Clary Hale wasn’t churning out watercolors of weathered fishing boats for the tourist trade, she was painting bleak, powerful scenes showing a shack in a tropical setting. Michael thinks Florida is worth a visit, and he’s right. He can’t believe his mother would voluntarily take off in the middle of the night just to get the artistic details right, and he’s on target about that too.

Because the Hales are teen-agers with a preschooler in tow, their search for their mother is far more chilling than it might be if the central characters were adult detectives.

Michael and Teah are armed with nothing more than love and intelligence. They don’t even have drivers’ licenses. Although Michael does have an occasional Holden Caulfied moment, there’s nothing cute or precious about this meticulously crafted tale. When and if he finally gets the Camcorder he’s been saving for, Michael is going to make an amazingly mature movie.

Let’s hope the studio that beats him to it in real time follows his lead.