Exes

Known primarily as a bestselling humorist ( How to Be a Jewish Mother ), Greenburg here essays crime fiction for the second time ( Love Kills ) with mixed results. Exes has its moments, particularly in a race-against-death closing segment that will have readers turning pages as fast as they can, but large portions of this story of the brutal and seemingly unconnected murders of several men in New York City fall flat. The nominal hero, police detective Max Segal, is neither particularly appealing nor sufficiently individuated, and the central tension here rests on an improbable relationship that undercuts the authentically drawn and graphically realistic setting and situation. The killer's identity is so immediately obvious that the author's coy attempts to mask it quickly become annoying, though Greenburg's portrait of the psychopath is effective and almost succeeds in making her sympathetic. On the whole, however, Exes proves disappointing. First serial to Playboy; author tour. (Feb.)