INTERN

The Senator. The Girl. The Wife. The Mother. Portentous chapter titles introduce the players in this ripped-from-yesterday’s-headlines debut, told from several points of view.

Twenty-three-year-old intern April Wayne actually believes that Eric Barry, a philandering senator from California who’s old enough to be her father, will leave his wife of many years just for her. After all, April’s trimmed her pubic hair into a pretty heart and she’s a redhead—Eric loves redheads. That ought to be enough to make a man jettison his political career and dump the clueless Suzanne without a second thought. It’s just April’s tough luck to disappear early in the story, leaving the others to figure it all out. A haphazard investigation of the senator’s extramarital love life doesn’t reveal much at first. Yet April’s loving mother Gloria has a feeling that there’s been foul play, a hunch that’s confirmed by her psychic hippie hairdresser. Tearful press conferences and tough-talking cops can’t get anything beside heartfelt denials from Eric. Suzanne wonders and worries: Is she married to a stranger? Just what does her husband do in D.C. and elsewhere while she’s holding down the fort at home? Surprise, surprise: he fools around. Among his bedfellows is Alfonso Trotter, a bisexual stud who likes to light his armpit hair on fire and bugger Eric when the distinguished senator is thrusting away at his latest redhead. Yes, this family man likes to play dirty and rough. Pouring hot candle wax on nipples is only one of his diversions; erotic asphyxiation is a fun game too, though annoyingly dead interns with inquisitive moms make playing it difficult. If only Gloria would quit snooping around, Eric could take care of his loyal constituency and life would get back to normal. He’s even beginning to believe his own lies until the hippie hairdresser’s nocturnal visions provide the key to April’s disappearance. . . .

Dated story, pedestrian prose, and the kinky sex is simply silly.