Charmed Place

A plot line that shifts from the Twilight Zone to Murder, She Wrote to the sit-com Cybill, makes Stockenberg's latest (after Dream a Little Dream) feel as if it's suffering from a bad case of channel-surfing. Summering in the family cottage on Cape Cod with her entourage of goofy friends, Maddie Regan is stunned to learn that Dan Hawke, her first love, has taken up residence in the lighthouse next door. During their college years, Dan had been a principal player in a political rally that nearly killed Maddie's father. The incident had ended their relationship. Now, after serving 14 years as a war correspondent, an out-of-body experience compels him to reenter Maddie's life and take up where they left off. Fortunately for him, Maddie's divorced. Unfortunately for him, everyone in her family hates him, especially Maddie's obsessively jealous ex-husband and Maddie's mother, who blames Dan--in a roundabout way--for her husband's death a few months before. Stockenberg's previous work has shown real promise, but in an attempt to keep the pace fast she has added too many elements and weighed down her story line. (June)