Wilderness

Keeper of a terrible secret and resigned to a fate some might regard as worse than death, Alice White lives alone, has no friends and permits herself human contact only in the arms of men she picks up for one-night stands. Once a month, at the full moon, Alice locks herself inside her basement and turns into a wolf. In this riveting debut, Danvers gives suspension of disbelief a whole new meaning. Never for an instant does the reader doubt Alice's plight nor fail to empathize with her dilemma: Should she , for the first time in her life, risk loving someone enough to share the secret with him? She wants desperately to end her self-imposed isolation but fears the awful truth will drive Erik Summers away. Wildlife biologist Summers, a man with a keen sensitivity to the anmial world, seems the ideal counterpart for the troubled Alice. Complicating these already dark matters still further are Summer's ex-wife, who wants him back, and Alice's psychiatrist, who has fallen in love with her. Human complications notwithstanding, it is when we are with Alice the wolf--prowling her den, pawing the floor, confined, condemned, yet unmistakably alive--that this provocative novel is at its sensuous, page-turning best. 50,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild alternate; paperback rights to Pocket Books; film option to Pathe Entertainment. (May)