Privileged Conversation

Successful psychiatrist David Chapman decides to stay in the city and work while his wife and children vacation on Martha's Vineyard. All is not tranquil in the city, however. A chance meeting with a Broadway dancer evokes his every erotic fantasy. But when bodies meet, when mystery and desire come together, there is no telling where the journey may end. And David finds he can't resist--or escape--the most dangerous woman of his dreams.

The blurred border between fantasy and obsession is explored in this latest from Hunter (Criminal Conversation and, as Ed McBain, the 87th Precinct novels), who keeps readers off-balance throughout. When happily married psychiatrist David Chapman rescues dancer Kate Duggan during a robbery in Central Park, the chance encounter inspires a sexual fantasy that has disturbing echoes in the revelations of some of his more troubled patients. It's only after David sees Kate dancing the part of Victoria in a performance of Cats that the fantasy is realized. During the course of a summer affair that becomes obsessive, the psychiatrist alternates weekends with his wife and family on Martha's Vineyard with wild evenings in the city with a woman he knows little about. Midway into the novel, the narrative switches from David's to Kate's point of view, as an admirer begins to stalk her. Suddenly, the psychiatrist's mysterious temptress becomes a very real woman in trouble. And there is yet another switch at novel's end, a sucker punch that will daze readers. Consummate craftsman Hunter invests this disquieting yarn with the easy intelligence and dark feel of a good Hitchcock film-plus a creepy resonance all its own. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Veteran mystery writer Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) has written 90 percent of a terrific novel here. Psychiatrist David Chapman intervenes as Kate Duggan is mugged in Central Park on a beautiful summer day. While his wife vacations with their daughters, Chapman finds himself drawn into a passionate affair with Duggan. The novel, told from Chapman's point of view, moves back and forth from his sessions with patients to his deepening involvement with Duggan. Chapman sneaks back into New York City during his annual August vacation to spend time with Duggan, just as she begins getting letters and veiled threats from a stalker. The novel builds to what promises to be an exciting climax but then simply peters out. The stalker thread ends unsatisfactorily, and a secondary story about Chapman's wife appears out of nowhere, all within the last few pages of the book. If Hunter was striving for a realistic ending, he succeeded, but at the expense of the narrative drive of his story. Still, that other 90 percent makes the book worth recommending. George Needham