MARLBOROUGH STREET

Though optimistically labeled ""science fiction"" by the publisher, this is actually a routine psychic/crime yarn from the author of Forbidden Sanctuary and Replica. Alan Simpson, a Boston-based psychic, is called in by the police to help in the kidnapping case of a prominent politician's son. He rescues the boy and acquires Julia, the unwilling pawn of the real kidnapper, superpsychic Seth. Seth soon tracks the terrified Julia to Alan's apartment and abducts her after killing Alan's cat. After consulting his mother (another psychic), Alan divines that Seth is now in California, and up to his kidnapping ways; Alan confronts him, realizes that he is overmatched in psychic power, but manages to escape with one of the victims (Seth kills the other as part of his weird plan to amplify his mental powers). And finally there's a showdown in New York as Alan is reunited with Julia and the two of them battle to defeat the maniacal Seth. Pleasant, unassuming, unambitious: inoffensive formula fare.