Kaleidoscope Eyes

Readers must prepare to be disturbed--and exasperated--by this X-rated, sinister and, above all, sado-masochistic tale. Sam Leo, a married epidemiologist, falls for a Mexican temptress named Selinde who has a proclivity for painful (though apparently compelling) sexual acts with jalapeno peppers. Unbeknownst to Sam, Selinde may be a supernatural being from Aztec folklore who demands human sacrifice; she's connected to an epidemic of rape-murders in which unresistant victims are stabbed repeatedly by their assailants. When Sam, his wife and two other couples take a vacation together at an isolated North Carolina beach house, it's clear that one or more of them will wind up on the sacrificial altar. Transfixed by a magical kaleidoscope that creates erotic mandalas, the group develops a taste for S & M. Watkins ( Dark Winds ) uses increasingly violent orgies to build suspense, culminating in a horrendous scene that finds several buck-naked survivors handling a razor-edged ritual knife. This gruesome tale may hold a certain fascination, but repetition makes the highly explicit sex scenes eventually seem ridiculous--a case of overkill, as it were. (May)