cover image Waverly Place

Waverly Place

Susan Brownmiller. Signet Book, $4.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-451-16324-0

The 1987 Greenwich Village child-abuse case involving the death of six-year-old Lisa Steinberg is the basis of Brownmiller's simplistic and sensationalized novel. ``Obviously intended to reach a wide commercial audience, the book betrays evidence of hasty writing and thin characterization,'' remarked PW . (Dec.)