Bad Karma

Trey Campbell, a 36-year-old psych tech at the Darden State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, is vacationing on Catalina Island with his wife and two children when the hospital's most dangerous serial killer escapes. Agnes Hatcher is called ""The Gorgon"" and ""The Surgeon"" for her stony stare and penchant for mutilating her victims. The event brings up unwelcome memories for Trey, who many years ago befriended Agnes in the belief that she could be rehabilitated, setting off a chain of events that ended with her murdering a psychiatrist whose judgment Trey had questioned. Now Agnes--who has intense visions of what she believes to be her former life as a turn-of-the-century prostitute--has become convinced that Trey is the reincarnation of her former lover, and she's willing to attack his family to win him back. As Agnes commits several more murders and draws near to his island retreat, Trey realizes he can protect his family only by confronting the madwoman on her own terms. The fact that Trey, who's worked at the hospital for 14 years, isn't quicker to catch on to the ways of this serial killer is just one of the novel's many implausible aspects. While glimpses of Agnes's warped consciousness, plus the genuine affection Trey shows for his wife and children, make for a couple of tense confrontations, these aren't enough to redeem a lurid plot in which Harper (Crossing the River, etc.) builds up a mountain of cliches to end up with only a molehill of suspense. (May)