The Gilgul

Hocherman's debut chiller departs from the now-familiar terrain of demonic possession within a Christian context to draw instead on Jewish mystical traditions. The wedding of David Seligman and Karen Gordon is disrupted when the bride, a beautiful and pampered 24-year-old, is inexplicably transformed into a grotesque, otherworldly being. What has happened, and how is it related to the headaches suffered by David's boss, TV journalist Neil DeLuca, since his visit the year before to Belsen concentration camp? DeLuca, a psychiatrist and a charismatic Hasidic rabbi seek to unravel the mystery as the creature that was Karen strikes a heinous deal for David's life. Hocherman loses his initial swift pacing, destroying the reader's willingness to suspend disbelief with a series of g implausible character motivations and a stockpile of sensationalized subplots involving AIDS, the Holocaust and the Kabbalah. (Feb.)