See Mommy Run

In telling the story of the cross-country flight of Allison Warren and her four-year-old daughter Stephanie, Jacobs ( The Turquoise Tattoo , a Pocket April reprint) exploits an up-to-the-minute topic: secret shelters for mothers who have kidnapped their children to protect them from sexually abusive fathers. Although the author has obviously researched her subject, the characters are wooden and the plot one-dimensional. Any suspense that might have been engendered by Allison's escape is canceled by the heavy-handed parallel tale of Louise Petersonp. 292 , the female private investigator who is hired to search for them and instead ends up sympathizing with them. Stereotypes abound, from Allison's older sister, Ruth Persky, who refuses to help because she has always been jealous of her more attractive sibling to the foul-mouthed fellow resident of a safehouse who disciplines her sons with violence. Not only is Stephanie devoid of any identifying characteristics--apart from a slight lisp which makes her pronounce television as ``telebishun''--but she seems practically unharmed despite having suffered sexual abuse. With its poor characterization and weak dramatization, Jacobs's tale has all the substance of a sappy television movie. (May)