Soul/Mate

Almost from the start of this romantic thriller, readers know that handsome, charming Colin Asch, who at age 12 witnessed his parents' drowning and went on to suffer undescribed horrors at the hands of a sadistic headmaster, is a pathological killer. When he meets lovely young widow Dorothea Deverell, with her ``burnished mahogany'' hair, gentle heart and impressive job at an art museum near Boston, and believes he has found, as the title has it, a soulmate, we know Dorothea is in trouble. The question is whether she will learn in time that Colin's overreaching admiration threatens her life. It's obvious to readers, and, as Colin's behavior grows more bizarre (he throws a lavish party in Dorothea's honor, kills a man who opposed her promotion), it should be to her. But it isn't, so Dorothea seems a little thick and is much less interesting than the extremely bent Colin, whose search for a mother figure and fantasy lover is at least understandable. With action scenes struggling to emerge from prose laden with exaggeration and verbosity, Smith's ( Lives of the Twins ) new psychothriller is a good story spoiled in the telling. Literary Guild and Mystery Guild main selections. (May)