PRAYING FOR SLEEP

Deaver (The Lesson of Her Death, 1993, etc.) hurtles through the 12 hours following the escape of enormous, schizophrenic Michael Hrubek as he makes his way from Marsden State Hospital to the home of Lisbonne Atcheson—the woman who testified against him at his murder trial. Intent on damage control, Marsden director Dr. Ronald Adler tries to keep the search for Hrubek off police wires by describing him as harmlessly confused. And the state police are hard-pressed anyway because of the killer storm roaring through New England. So Hrubek's main pursuers are a ragtag bunch who don't even know about each other. Dr. Richard Kohler, the experimental clinician in charge of Michael's case, wants to rescue Hrubek before Adler can turn Kohler into a scapegoat for his escape. Trenton Heck, a laid-off state trooper attracted by the $10,000 reward Adler's offered, tracks Hrubek with his bloodhound Emil. And Lis's husband Owen, who did two tours in Vietnam before setting up his law practice, is determined to shoot Hrubek down before he can get to his wife, marooned at her home by the storm (of course)—together with her sexpot sister Portia, who's been mysteriously remote ever since the day at Indian Leap State Park when their picnic exploded in murder. As Hrubek cunningly throws off his pursuers with one dodge after another while leaving a blood-strewn trail to Lis, a series of harrowing flashbacks retrace his years-long descent into paranoia and madness. Overlong, overheated, wildly uneven, but undeniably throat- clutching: Halloween for grownups. (First printing of 50,000)