Flycatcher

Edgar-winner Trevor (author, under the pseudonym Adam Hall, of the Quiller spy series) has shown a fascination with weird psychic relationships in much of the psychological suspense fiction he's published under his own name (The Sister; The Sibling). That theme continues here as Manhattan fashion executive Tasha Fontaine finds herself mentally linked to the victim of a brutal serial killer. Somehow, at the moment of her murder in Central Park, Christine Whittendorf reaches out to Fontaine, a casual acquaintance, drawing the fashion designer into the world she left behind (Fontaine gate-crashes the dead woman's funeral and steals her scarf during the reception afterward)-although whether Whittendorf's spectral voice is real or imagined isn't entirely clear. Meanwhile, tough police detective Bernard Behrens investigates the case; but though Trevor expends several pages on his personality and obsessions, the cop comes across as no less a cliche than does the unidentified killer, who has been warped forever because he was mistreated by his mother and her lover. Will Behrens nail the murderer before the murderer nails Fontaine? The answer will surprise no one, although the truncated ending likely will prove as unsatisfying to most readers as the rest of this novel, a particularly poor showing from an author who usually does better. (Oct.)