The Broken Hearts Club

Just in time for Valentine's Day, a pumped-up, deeply silly thriller that shows that woman hath no fury like a man scorned. Every week four men meet at Mackey's Tavern to share their stories of love lost. Harris Tillman has been asked to slow down a little by poet Niana Embers because she's got issues with intimacy, though her issues haven't prevented her from enjoying three months of wild and crazy coitus with the passionate banker. Literary agent Eric Porter, whose girlfriend Karen Chambers was originally so sweet about his herpes infection, has summarily been dumped when his rash turned up at the wrong moment. Greta Berger, the oncology nurse who helped auto mechanic Eric Porter confront his past as an abused child, has married a doctor at Mt. Sinai. Even though the forlorn lovers know that they're supposed to take rejection like real men, they weep and wail as they pour out their woeful tales to psychologist Ian Bainbridge. "I love her. I want her to die," sobs the banker, then goes off into the night to settle Niana's intimacy issues once and for all. After he confesses what he's done to Dr. Bainbridge, the psychologist wishes he could turn him in, but when Tillman threatens to implicate him professionally, he backs down and watches in horror as Tillman persuades the literary agent to accept his help in resolving his own romantic problems. By the time Greta Berger is introduced, things aren't looking too good for her. Meantime, NYPD detective Conrad Voort has broken up with his own lover, NBC producer Camilla Ryan, who's flown into the arms of Ian Bainbridge. Voort seems too sunk in his own grief to be the world's sharpest sleuth, but even he eventually realizes that there's an unhealthy bond among the four members of the Broken Hearts Club—a bond that makes for the one and only surprise in this overslung, underplotted debut. More sex than the Kama Sutra, fewer thrills than the Gospel according to Mark. Stand back and watch it take off. (Literary Guild/Mystery Guild/Doubleday book club selections)