Shudder

LAPD homicide detective Robert Card is the recently widowed father of a young son. Card's always difficult job thus becomes even more so when he is called in to investigate the death of a little boy who has been found suffocated and bound. Soon after, Card meets Angela Westmore, a sensitive, sexy day-care counselor who is great with kids. Unfortunately, Angela bears deep emotional scars from being sexually abused as a child. Detective Ellen Lindstrom is suspicious of her partner's new squeeze, and her private investigation proves her right: Angela suffers from a multiple-personality disorder. Her other personality is the death-obsessed poet Dominique, who kills children as inspiration for her verse. Dominique becomes fixated on Card after seeing him on the television news; she uses Angela to snare him, in order to get to the real prize: Card's son, Mike. The two detectives must race to save Mike's life before Dominique again heeds the call of her deadly muse. Despite a gory ending that veers somewhat unsteadily into horror-novel territory, Harper ( Shiver ) deftly weaves inventive characters and believable situations into an absorbing thriller. (Jan.)