Denial

From first-time novelist and longtime psychologist Comfort comes an entertaining but not entirely convincing tale of romantic suspense with an overlay of psychoanalytic theory. The heroine, Sarah Rinsley, is a well-known therapist in L.A. (she even has a radio call-in show) who becomes entangled with a dangerous patient, Nick Arnholt. Though a seemingly charming and successful attorney, Nick exhibits all kinds of self-destructive behavior: he uses cocaine, courts a parade of women without sustaining a relationship and ultimately behaves irresponsibly enough to lose his job. But matters reach a crisis point when he becomes sexually obsessed with Sarah and believes that she returns his feelings. Sarah is herself distressed by her therapy sessions with Nick as they stir up a number of unresolved issues from the past. As Nick becomes a more demanding patient, Sarah's burgeoning romance with the sexy Nicaraguan restaurateur Humbero Cortazar begins to unravel. She also finds herself confronting aspects of her relationship with her mother that plunge her into a depression and psychological confusion. At this juncture, Nick slaps her with a lawsuit--slanderous, scandalous and spurious. Will she be able to defend her reputation, on which her future happiness (not to mention economic solvency) depends? Comfort seems to have constructed her characters from textbook cases of dysfunctional behavior, and the denouement will strain the limits of even the most willingly suspended disbelief. But readers of commercial fiction who enjoy suspense coated with slick analytic detail will doubtlessly find Sarah and her problems appealing. (Mar.)