Kiss Them Goodbye

For his first novel, screenwriter Eastburn cranks out a formulaic serial-killer thriller distinguished mainly by glaring lapses in logic and a killer whose psychological motivation begs belief. Students at an exclusive boys' prep school in Ravenstown in upstate New York are turning up gruesomely murdered; and, apparently, the killer has danced with the victims either during or after their bloody death throes. Police detective Nick Fowler, recently transferred from Buffalo, takes charge and immediately antagonizes everyone, including his own superiors, most of the suspects and Maureen McCauley, a beautiful reporter who undermines his investigation with her stories. Their developing romantic attachment is a particularly jarring element in a generally improbable narrative, as she decides to print the name of the main suspect and detail the evidence against him before charges have been made. Incomprehensibly, few of the characters seem much concerned about the murderer in their midst; readers will most likely share their indifference. (Sept.)