Eyes: A Susan Shader Novel

A touching, surprisingly credible central character--a woman psychiatrist with second sight--anchors this new series kickoff (by a pseudonymous writer described as ""a New York Times bestselling author""), but the story itself, about a serial killer who strangles women athletes and gouges out their eyes, is burdened with too much familiar or implausible baggage. The divorced mother of a six-year-old son who lives with his father in California, Dr. Susan Shader practices in Chicago and consults with the police on high-profile murder cases. Although her psychic powers zero in on a college janitor as a likely suspect in the murders of three young women, the reader has already been tipped off that he isn't the killer, so it comes as no surprise when, after he hangs himself in jail, an another eyeless corpse crops up. It doesn't add to the suspense that the real villain is one of those brilliant, endlessly resourceful lunatics who know how to finance their crime sprees. Dr. Shader's relationships with her son, her newswoman roommate and a police colleague are well drawn, as are her mixed feelings about her ESP, but Glass has let her down by not showcasing them in a more plausible story. 50,000 first printing. (Jan.)