Dark Debts

Beautiful Randa Phillips, a columnist for an L.A. alternative paper, has been called in to identify the body of her former lover, successful novelist Cameron Landry, who seemingly succumbed to the family curse and committed murder before killing himself. Randa finds herself manipulated into visiting the last surviving member of Cam's notoriously dysfunctional family and falls frighteningly in love with this handsome man who may, through no fault of his own, be turning into a monster. Concurrent with this love story runs the tale of Michael McKinney, a sexy Jesuit priest who has defied his superiors in the church and is suffering a crisis of faith. He, too, harbors family secrets and a dark legacy to overcome. As the novel races toward a technicolor climax, existential questions mount--about faith, love, the devil and the power of Christ. First-novelist Hall, a veteran TV writer (for Hill Street Blues and other shows) pricks the reader's attention with many thorny philosophical issues about the nature of evil and the need for ritual in religion, as well as with a lively explication of Jesuit life. Her penchant for neatly tied answers, however, makes this sudsy work of supernatural horror more spirited than spiritual. Still, Hall's image of Jesus in a flannel shirt is an appealing one, and is likely to win over readers not already ensnared by her page-flipping tale, which owes an obvious debt to The Exorcist but which cuts its own turf with flair. 150,000 first printing; film rights to Paramount; author tour. (Aug.)