THE DONOR

Robinson's creepy new thriller hits the ground running, with young hero Dennis Heller waking in a hospital to discover that he's just undergone major surgery for a minor car accident. Worse, it isn't the first time: the strange masked surgeon is the same one who cut him open in Boston after Dennis went in for a routine physical. Before they can take something else out of him, Dennis flees into the cold San Francisco night. Meanwhile, in Boston, the similarly young and confused Robert Krost jockeys for a better position in his father Max's cold heart and, more important, his will. A secret (a very dark one, Robert suspects) lies at the bottom of Max's frequent surgeries, but neither elderly Max nor his belligerent and aging trophy wife, Anita, is telling. In his sleek tale, Robinson brings these two protagonists progressively closer and closer together, and while he doesn't always maintain the high-stakes tension of the book's opening chapters, he's a crackerjack writer with a great ear, and he keeps the pages turning by giving his characters psychological depth. Thus, Dennis is searching for clues to his past while pining for his adoptive sister, not to mention running for his life, and Robert has so confused his greed with his need, he's convinced this is his last chance. This is a gripping tale, extremely well told. Agent, Mitchell Waters at Curtis Brown. (July)