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Screenwriter/producer Matheson's first novel dissects the high-octane Hollywood of network TV with blistering cynicism but ultimately fails to sustain psychological suspense. Writer/producer Alan White finally has a sure-fire hit with his series The Mercenary , a show that takes TV sex and violence to new levels of depravity. But he has also created a monster, unleashing his own dark side in the form of his fictional character, a vicious mercenary named A. E. Barek. As Alan's enemies are brutally murdered one by one, he realizes he must track down and destroy his creation before it consumes its creator. The novel's bitter portrait of Hollywood might have worked as a contemporary morality play, but the narrator's smug, hipper-than-thou tone and contrived humor render Alan himself nearly as unsavory as the soulless media barons he despises. Matheson--whose credits include the short story collection Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks and work on such TV series as Quincy , Magnum PI and Tales from the Crypt --devotes pages to secondary characters (a mysterious psychic, a comely detective) and undeveloped subplots while leaving the bizarre premise of Barek's transition from fiction to reality largely unexplored. It is as though Matheson loaded down a slam-bang screenplay with novelistic ``depth,'' and in the process almost buried it. (Sept.)