Sideshow: 2a Novel of Suspense

Readers in search of suspense will find this novel aptly titled: like a carnival sideshow, it promises more than it delivers. Boston librarian Soleil Browne agrees to be a subject in ``Dreamscape,'' a sleep experiment in which dream states trigger an audiovisual display. Somehow--and the author never explains this adequately--Soleil's participation in the program sparks bizarre dreams that mentally transport her to 1932, where she bears witness to the traumatic life of an orphaned 12-year-old girl. Chapters about Soleil, who becomes obsessed with ``protecting'' the child, alternate with stories of the girl, called ``Shoe'' because she has been disfigured by a horse's kick to the face. LeClaire's ( Grace Point ) imaginative rendering of Depression-era life proves stronger than her cardboard, soap-opera version of present-day events. Still, plot devices loom from every direction--Soleil's mother has suffered a stroke; one of Dreamscape's doctors is Soleil's estranged lover; a serial killer nicknamed the ``Sweetheart Strangler'' is on the loose in the present--and practically nothing gels. It's only natural for readers to suspect that Shoe's life, Soleil's dreams, the comatose mother and the serial killer will magically converge at the climax; however, nothing so spectacular takes place, even when Leclaire draws comparisons between a homicidal child molester's pursuit of Shoe and the strangler's stalking of Soleil. Ultimately, the author's failure to provide even a sketchy scientific or psychic framework for her tale undermines its already shaky plot. Paperback rights to Signet. (Aug.)