Her Every Fear

Kate Priddy, the heroine of this unconvincing psychological thriller from Swanson (The Kind Worth Killing), who’s still traumatized by a boyfriend turned stalker, impulsively agrees to swap her London flat with Corbin Dell, an American cousin she has never met. After a harrowing plane trip and a ride through Boston’s Sumner Tunnel that prompts a panic attack, Kate arrives at Corbin’s luxurious Beacon Hill apartment just before the discovery of a murder in the apartment next door. The body of book editor Audrey Marshall is marked with gruesome postmortem cuts, which prove to be similar to those of other victims in places where Corbin has lived. Kate begins to suspect that her cousin knows more about Audrey’s murder than he claims. As a fragile Kate tries to hold herself together, another stalker targets her. The characters, especially the female ones, rarely make rational decisions, and Kate herself doesn’t consistently react in the face of grave danger in the manner of someone suffering from crippling anxiety. Swanson fans will hope for a return to form next time. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Associates. (Jan.)