If Should Die

Israel's sixth shocker is related by Phil Revere, assistant to attorney Charles Camelot and confidante of Camelot's wife, psychiatrist Nora Saroff, the sleuthing couple in I'll Cry When I Kill You. In Manhattan, homicide detectives try to find the ``Pillow Killer,'' who smothers young women in their beds. Disturbed by the suspicion that her patient, Carter McCloy, is the murderer, Nora turns to Revere for advice and he becomes an unofficial investigator. Tracking McCloy's pals in their late-night carousing, Revere witnesses incidents that make him anxious about the idle, boozing, big spenders' female pickups. He is more worried for Nora's safety after she quarrels with her husband and disappears. Knowing she is unprotected and a target of the mad gang, Revere takes on the chancy role of hero in a fearful clash. (Readers will see similarities to habitues of the bar that was the background of the real-life Chambers/Levin tragedy.) (Feb.)