Pyrophobia

Fire-fearing Jason Evans, the hero of this uneven crime thriller from bestselling Dutch author Lance (Dark Memory), seems to have it all: a good job as an art director at a Los Angeles ad agency, a nice home, a lush wife named Kayla, and a set of troubled coworkers thrown in for contrast. But when eerie graveyard photos start arriving anonymously claiming that Jason is dead, he undertakes a predictable quest for his real identity, first into the wilds of hypnotic regression therapy and then on a 300-mile jaunt with Kayla into the Mojave Desert. Lance strains to capture California noir, but by the time Jason's psychic knots are unraveled and his tormentors unmasked, this stale kindling has only smoldered a little, and never really produced more than feeble, acrid smoke. (July)