BURDEN

Death during sex is the unusual method of suicide chosen by a troubled protagonist named Burden in Walters's debut novel, an engaging but flawed coming-of-age story about a young man whose death wish is occasioned by guilt. Devastated by his involvement in a shooting incident with a deranged local farmer that takes the life of his cousin Peedie, 21-year-old Burden decides to commit suicide by seducing housewives in the hopes that an enraged husband will gun him down. His job as a delivery boy in a small South Carolina town offers plenty of romantic access, and before long Burden finds himself sweating up the sheets with a doctor's wife as well as a sexy former high school crush. In the process, though, he torpedoes a budding relationship with Jo Simon, the girl of his dreams, who ends up leaving town to become a nurse. Walters's talent for storytelling is noteworthy, and he has a knack for writing energetic scenes that capture steamy sex. But he stretches the thin sexual conceit well beyond the breaking point, and the inevitable confrontation with a jealous husband is as predictable as the mawkish, overwrought series of scenes in which Burden tries to come to terms with his loss while attempting to patch up his relationship with Simon. The final tally of the book's flaws and strengths ends up a wash, a solid signal that Walters has some work to do to fully realize his literary potential. Agent, John Talbot. Film rights to Miramax. (Mar.)