Deliver Us from Evil

Billed as a thriller, this novel--which carries on Luber's ""Our Father"" theme begun with Forgive Us Our Sins--reads more like a meaty mystery. Once again the narrator is Harry Kline, a psychiatrist and author in historic Concord, Mass., whose personal and professional lives collide when his patients tell him secrets that can kill--and they do. The main story--a hit-and-run accident that is clearly a murder--is dotted by police, priests and others restricted by professional discretion. If the plot of Forgive Us Our Sins was more original than this increasingly messy and predictable narrative, Deliver Us From Evil still makes for quick summer reading while offering a minicourse in psychiatry. Perhaps because Luber is a psychologist (albeit one who specializes in forensic psychology) he has an assured hand when it comes to creating characters who exhibit both depth and shallowness. (July)