Tell Me Your Dreams

August 3, 1998
Perennial bestseller Sheldon (The Best Laid Plans) doesn't get under the reader's skin here as he does at his best, even though he weaves together many of his time-tested elements--childhood horror and its consequences; lust and murder as bedfellows; a pretty, hapless heroine; good men in the legal and medical professions trying to undo the wrongs done by others. Despite gory crime scene depictions, the old master, uncharacteristically, has left out the suspense and the layers of feeling. We finger the serial murderer all too quickly, just as we know before we know that Ashley's creepy physician father, Steven, abused her as a child. We never doubt that goodhearted lawyer David Singer will convince hostile judge Tessa Williams that, yes, multiple personality disorder happens, and that, morally and legally, it separates the doer from the deed. Nor is it any surprise that psychiatrist Gilbert Keller, spurred on by personal as well as professional longings, takes Allison apart and puts her back together the right way--or does he? A prefatory sentence says the novel is based on real cases. Maybe so, but one wishes that the authentic details had been told with genuine passion. Literary Guild main selection.