Dangerous Behavior by Walter Marks (First Novel)

A high-stakes psychological thriller focuses on the release of the "Baby Carriage Killer" from prison as an inexperienced doctor is assigned the task of determining whether or not prospective parolee Victor Thomas Janko can be released after years in solitary confinement. A first novel. $100,000 ad/promo.

Broadway composer and lyricist Marks strikes a dull note in this debut psychological thriller set in the environs of a New York State prison. Psychiatrist David Rothberg is trying to determine whether Victor Janko, the notorious baby carriage killer, should be paroled after 15 years behind bars. In his initial consultations, Rothberg detects little threat from Janko, a model prisoner who spends most of his time painting beach landscapes. Janko insists he has no memory of the crime for which he was sentenced the stabbing death of a young mother while her baby watched from a nearby carriage and, indeed, some evidence points to his innocence and toward another suspect. Yet Rothberg finds himself pulled in another direction by prison officials who claim they have heard Janko brag about the crime. Right on cue, a key fact emerges that turns Rothberg from prison shrink to dogged investigator, hunting for the real killer in New York City. Just when it seems that Marks is about to build to a heady finale, the plot peters out disappointingly. Some readers, however, will have grown bored earlier on. In spite of Rothberg's unusual profession and some quirky traits he suffers from migraines, drives a converted Checker cab and cares for a pet turtle he has a remarkably spiritless interior life. "If only I could get a resolution to the mystery of Victor Janko," he thinks at one point. "But how?" Readers may well have stopped wondering.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fighting his own personal demons, psychiatrist David Rothberg takes a job in New York's maximum security Vanderkill Upstate Correctional Facility. His first assignment is to determine if Victor Janko, the notorious Baby Carriage Killer and now a celebrated prison artist, is mentally competent to be paroled after 15 years in solitary confinement. Dr. Rothberg is soon entangled in a web of conflicting interests and devious intentions as he comes to believe that Janko might be innocent of the horrific murder for which he was convicted. Quirky characters, such as a beautiful, but conniving, librarian and a pistol-packing, senior-citizen lady lawyer, add originality to the hackneyed plot. This first novel by Emmy Award-winning composer Marks lacks fully fleshed-out characters and originality (sadistic prison guards and sleazy strip bar assignations are de rigueur in recent novels of this ilk), but it hums along to a "keep you guessing ending" and should be popular with crime novel buffs. Michael Gannon
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