REVIEWED BY BOB MEADOWS
CRITIC'S CHOICE
THRILLER
Trouble opens like a Scrubs episode—you can easily imagine Zach Braff as medical student Jonah Stem, wandering Times Square at 2 a.m., his shoes squishy with, uh, emergency-room detritus following a rough night on call. The book takes a darker turn, however, after an incident that initially brightens Jonah's life: He saves a stranger, Eve, from a stabber, accidentally killing her attacker but becoming a hero in the media and in the eyes of the lovely Eve. Then the trouble starts. Eve's love curdles into obsession; Jonah tries to break off their romance, but she reveals a shocking secret, and he begins fearing for his life. As Eve stalks him, he spends nights worrying she can "squeeze through the vents like human toothpaste, scale the exterior wall, slip through the crack beneath the door." Kellerman, the son of authors Jonathan and Faye, finds his voice in this second novel. It's occasionally overwrought or tries too hard to sound smart—just like Scrubs, in fact. But like Scrubs, in the end Trouble is a satisfying journey into the bizarre.
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