I'll Be Watching You

The money and fame-burnished life of a glamorous author turns into a nightmare when a stalker provokes terror and a sensational trial brings scandal in Gotti's (The Senator's Daughter) designer-clad thriller. Off the plane from Paris with just enough time to greet her husband, a criminal attorney and gubernatorial candidate, and her daughter, a beautiful preppie, before changing outfits at her opulent Fifth Avenue apartment for the book party at the Waldorf, novelist Rose Miller thinks she has relegated the dark side of her life to her fiction. Then, in a box of Victorian roses, she receives a nasty threat on the same day her childhood playmate and long-lost love, now a Las Vegas kingpin, returns to New York to be tried for racketeering--with Rose's husband as his lawyer. Who's the stalker? Gotti furnishes an array of sordid characters--from the domineering father-in-law to the overwrought publicist--to keep readers guessing, but her novel falls short of her successful debut. The story is undermined by the opening passage, recited by the corpse at a funeral, by the surprise ending, which isn't at all surprising, and by the white noise of shopping tips. The story, like the heroine, keeps afloat on sheer energy and determination, but not much substance. Random House audio; author tour. (July)