cover image Fatal Convictions

Fatal Convictions

Shari P. Geller. ReganBooks, $24 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-06-039181-2

Pulpy, predictable and polemical, Geller's debut thriller strives to be Death Wish in high heels. Someone's killing all the child molesters in the San Fernando Valley. The forensic experts have concluded it's a blonde, and detectives Jack Larson and Jennifer Randazzo set out to find the perpetrator. There are more than a few suspects: frustrated D.A. Rebecca Fielding, who has lost all faith in the system and is tired of watching pedophiles con their way through therapy and probation; therapist Valerie Kingsley, who encourages sex-offenders to listen to their inner children rather than rape real ones; bitter victim Laurie Jenkins; and narcissistic drag queen Frank LaPaca, a member of Valerie's therapy group. Geller, a lawyer who is trained as a counselor in a treatment program for sex offenders, gets her plot moving fast enough but leaves compelling characters and settings behind. The killer's identity should surprise no one, which leaves only graphic close-ups of the murders and a few rants against child molesters to interest most readers. Crime fans will know, moreover, that this novel doesn't, as the publicity copy claims, ""pioneer the genre of female vigilante justice."" Nancy Taylor Rosenberg has been working that genre for years--and with a lot more panache than Geller shows here. $45,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Oct.)