So Like Sleep: A Detective Novel

Healy, author of The Staked Goat and Blunt Darts, will garner more praise for his strange and wonderful new story. In the third adventure related by Boston-based private eye John Francis Cuddy, he takes on the seemingly hopeless task of proving that William Daniels, a black youth, is innocent of killing his white lover, Jennifer Creasy. The accused himself believes that he's guilty, as do witnesses, patients in Dr. Marek's hypno-therapy group to which William and Jennifer had belonged. When a second member of the group is murdered, Cuddy's suspicions of the doctor increase. The investigator travels to distant cities where Marek previously practiced, in a search for evidence of criminal ""treatments,'' but no one is talking. It's a frustrating hegira until the mystery is solved in a jolting confrontation. Cuddy earns the status of new, favorite series hero. The author's gifts include an unerring eye and ear that invest all the characters with life. (April 15)