Nobody Believes Me

Greg Alter, the love interest in Katz's formulaic first novel, seems too good to be true. He's gallant, handsome, generous and a sexually adventurous lover to boot. Not surprisingly, Boston TV talk-show host Lynn Marchette can't believe her luck in attracting such a good man just when everything else in her life is also going her way. Her program is under consideration for national syndication, and she's feeling and looking better than ever. So, naturally, trouble comes hurtling into her life with the force of a speeding bowling ball, threatening to knock down her dreams one by one. The problem is that Katz's approach is so heavy-handed that Greg and much else in this Perils of Pauline -like psycho-thriller turns out to be too bad to be true, leaching the plot and characters of believability. While it takes Lynn a while to figure out that Greg is really a Date from Hell, most readers will clue in a lot faster, and will find Greg's campaign to harass and humiliate Lynn lacking in suspense, psychological edge and engagement. Even when Lynn's friends dismiss her complaints about Greg and question her sanity, the effect is to create not Gaslight -style suspicion about the heroine's state of mind but only the belief that she needs new friends. The irony is that Lynn herself is a well-wrought character, skillfully depicted as she's caught in a downward spiral of doubt, insecurity, self-hatred and shame. It's only too bad that she's also caught in such an implausible story. (June)