ANGEL FACE

Who is Angel Face? A serial killer who has a penchant for doctors, an innocent victim who is being framed by the CIA or a nonentity? The reader will have as much trouble trying to determine the identity of this elusive figure as California surgeon Jordan Carpenter, and Forster's clumsy plotting and purple prose ("They had answered the incessant drumbeat pounding within them") does little to guide the reader through this tangled web. When a mysterious CIA agent knocks on Jordan's door to inform him that he's on Angel Face's death list, Jordan is doubtful that the man's suspect, beautiful Angela Lowe, could be a murderer. Jordan soon learns, however, that Angela has the instincts of a trained killer and a history of abuse that could unhinge any sane person. For reasons never made clear, Jordan hunts Angela down, whisks her off to the Mexican jungle and tries to make her remember long-forgotten incidents from her past. In the process, passion flares between the two. Forster (The Morning After; Sinful) is noted for writing romantic suspense tinged with eroticism, but the masochistic aspect of this relationship will stun even her most stalwart fans. A hasty conclusion leaves many loose ends dangling, and the novel's flat characters will do little to hold the reader's attention. (Aug. 7)