Eye for an Eye

Respectable citizens resort to organized vigilantism in this feeble conspiracy thriller set in contemporary New York. Successful PR executive Karen Newman falls in with a shadowy group called Victims Anonymous after her daughter is brutally gang-raped and murdered, prompting her son-in-law and granddaughter to commit suicide. When the judge, a bleeding-heart liberal, sets free her daughter's juvenile killer despite photographic evidence of the crime, Karen finds more satisfying justice with a pistol and the support of her new club. Victims Anonymous asks Karen to coordinate publicity for the burgeoning nationwide organization, and she becomes progressively more involved in its inner circle--which, of course, proves to include victimizers as well as victimized. Holzer ( Double Crossing ) fails to give this preposterous scenario any credibility. Her first-person narrative is a muddle, her characters mere stick figures trading trite, underdone commentary on American law enforcement as they move forward a clumsy plot full of illogical twists and unsatisfying elaboration. (Apr.)