I'LL BE WATCHING YOU

A silverplated but overplotted second thriller (The Senator’s Daughter, 1997) that revamps scenes from the moody but dumb ’40s flick I Wake Up Screaming (remade as Vicki). And, yes, Vicki Gotti is Godfather John Gotti’s daughter. This time, her consumer thriller drapes her heroine—romantic-suspense novelist Rose Miller—with best-seller status, fancy duds, chauffeured limos, trysts at the Plaza, a Fifth Avenue pied-Ö-terre, and a Long Island spread with an endless foyer done in creamy Italian marble. Beautiful, well-heeled Rose is just back from Paris and the European book tour for her fourth novel, and is met by her beautiful 12-year-old daughter Alexis and husband Evan Miller. Now, Evan, a very nice fellow, is at his very rich but monstrous father’s behest about to run for governor—and then the White House. As the orphan of the Millers’ handyman, Rose grew up in the Miller mansion with Evan and his half-brother Dimitri Constantinos, father James Miller’s bastard whose mother fled them years ago. One drunken night, Rose slept with Dimitri and, well, rapist Uncle Tom is killed; Dimitri goes to jail for six years while Rose marries Evan and has Alexis (who doesn—t look much like Evan). Meanwhile, a serial killer named Billy is murdering women and sends Rose boxes of roses with the awful warning “I’ll Be Watching You.” Since his release from jail, Dimitri has gotten deeply into the casino biz, racketeering, and extortion, although the law is after him with a vengeance. So, even while Rose really loves Dimitri . . .well, subliminally the complications verge on the incestuous, and we haven—t even got to Rose’s obsessionally nutty publicist Dario—could he be Billy? Gotti strives to rise above the hackneyed with some nice touches that lead to her forcibly twisted climax. As yet, though, she can only kneel at the pedestal where Mary Higgins Clark stares at the stars.