Loves Music, Loves to Dance

Darcy Scott, the plucky heroine of Clark's disappointing latest suspense novel, is a promising young decorator whose best friend, Erin Kelley, has disappeared. At Darcy's behest, Erin had agreed to participate in research for a mutual friend's documentary on personal ads. When her body is found on an abandoned Manhattan pier, she is wearing two different shoes--her own boot and a high-heeled dancing slipper. Once the investigation into her death begins, two facts stand out: first, that this is the work of a serial killer whose MO includes adorning the victim with a dancing shoe, and second, that Erin met her killer through the personals. Guilt-ridden, Darcy sets out to meet the men Erin dated, hoping to find the killer herself. A hazardous pursuit, to say the least, but one which might thrill Clark fans, so great is the potential for terror as unwitting heroine stalks madman. Unfortunately, too much is revealed too soon and the reader, generally one step ahead of Darcy, is more frustrated than frightened. A surfeit of insignificant minor characters and one too many red herrings make the novel's sleight-of-hand ending seem very forced indeed. Literary Guild selection. (May)