From Publishers Weekly
Mixing and matching devices from other thrillers, this debut about a pair of star-stalking killers never quite gets off the ground. News anchor and former English professor Katlyn Rome is already facing professional and personal tensions (especially the resentment of her husband, a music producer, over her new career) when she delivers an impromptu editorial on the six-o'clock news questioning the LAPD's handling of a series of rapes and murders committed by a celebrity-obsessed killer nicknamed Starman, whose targets range from porn stars to rock musicians. While Katlyn's boss is critical of her unprofessional rashness, he decides to capitalize on the publicity by having Katlyn cover the Starman story. Needless to say, Katlyn soon attracts the notice of Starman and his mysterious partner, Bo, who stalk her cat-and-mouse fashion, stealing photograph albums from her home, leaving threatening messages and even breaking into a hospital lab to destroy her fertilized egg. Although Friedman has a gift for capturing L.A.'s obsession with publicity, the assorted pathologies he assigns to his pair of killers are old hat, and we never believe in Katlyn's peril enough to care about her story.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The Starman, a serial killer who preys on celebrity females, is loose in L.A. When newscaster Katlyn Rome exhorts the police to crank up their investigation a few notches, Starman isn't pleased, and neither is the voice in his head, called Bo, who rationalizes the killings and plots the next one. Soon Katlyn is the bull's-eye on Starman's target. Her home is invaded, then torched, and her husband, Matt, is kidnapped. Starman is captured and commits suicide but won't reveal Matt's fate. When the terror continues, the question becomes, Is Starman so evil he can operate from beyond the grave? In a sense he can, in the person of Bo, who may be more than just a voice. The hardcover debut from author Friedman is in many ways standard psycho-killer fare, but a unique plot twist and a
Twilight Zone conclusion raise it well above ordinary and mark the author as a promising newcomer in the thriller genre.
Wes Lukowsky
