The Visionary

Entertainment attorney Passman concocts a predictable crime thriller set in L.A. about a self-proclaimed psychic who doesnt know the whereabouts of her own father yet professes to intuit detailed information about a series of increasingly grisly murders. Lisa Cleary presents herself to Professor Michael Rennick, a Harvard Law/Yale Medical grad who handles pro bono cases and writes bestsellers while teaching law at UCLA. Rennick agrees to make time to counsel Cleary about her visions around the same time LAPD detective Danny Talon asks Rennick to consult on a series of murders of young women. (Italicized sections meant to be the secret journal of the killer are inserted episodically in the text.) When Clearys visions lead to discovery of the murderers equipment, detective Talon wonders to Rennick if Cleary might be the killer, a suggestion the psychiatrist dismisses. A subplot concerns the romantic discord between Rennick and Julie, his lover of three months whos also a graduate student in his class. Julie must choose between staying with commitment-phobic Rennick or going to New York to study with a legendary Nobel laureate in DNA who now works in the humanities because the manipulation of genetic material is leading to a Hitleresque system of discrimination. Though the storys many threads produce a disorganized plot, many of Passmans characters are vividly detailed (Rennick is colorblind, the murder victims are mostly placid New Agers), and even if they haphazardly propel the story forward, readers may enjoy their chaotic drift toward a tidy finale. (June) FYI: Passman is the author of the nonfiction bestseller All You Need to Know About the Music Business (S&S, 1991).