By Eva Ciabattoni

When I received notice of Michele Martinez’s debut novel “Most Wanted” (William Morrow, 2005), I decided to take another look at genre fiction.

With a Harvard undergraduate degree, a Stanford law degree and a decade as an Assistant U.S. Attorney to her credit, Martinez was a good bet to deliver a smart, stylish thriller.

That promise was partially fulfilled.

Melanie Vargas is a prosecutor in the Major Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York City. She has just thrown out her handsome, successful, cheating husband. She takes her fussy baby to a crime scene late at night, where she happens to run into friend who happens to be like a godmother to her 6-month-old daughter Maya, thus freeing Melanie to investigate the crime scene. Melanie spends the next 72 hours chasing a brutal killer named Slice and fighting (unsuccessfully) her attraction to clear-eyed, fit FBI Agent Dan O’Reilly, while witnesses to the crime are eliminated one by one and her husband tries to convince her to give their marriage another chance.

The compressed time frame is one problem. It’s like rushing a soufflé. All the ingredients are there, but turning the heat up to cook it faster results in a product that’s burned on the edges with no rise in the middle. Sheer brutality and near-robotic killings don’t add up to a real sense of menace. When Melanie goes into the creepy basement of her building for some files (great creepiness potential - who doesn’t have a fear of dark basements at night?), she wedges her purse in the door to keep it from locking her in. It seems unbelievable that a storage room wouldn’t have a way for prosecutors not to get locked in. And is there any woman who would part with her purse? Her shoe - maybe - but not her purse. And when her purse is stolen, her keys are left in it. If we’re to think Melanie is being stalked, wouldn’t it be creepy to think that the stalker has the keys to her house? But this angle remains unexploited.

The reader is told that Melanie is experienced and smart, but in scene after scene she caves to the will of others. In one memorable evening, instead of going home to her daughter, she caves to her boss to attend a retirement dinner, then caves to a cop to get into his car, then caves to O’Reilly to get a beer, then caves to her husband who wants her at a counseling session. It’s hard to believe that Melanie, portrayed as a mother who cares deeply about her child, would make such choices.

The best scenes are those in which Melanie uses her legal and prosecutorial skills. But these scenes feel rushed, as though Martinez were afraid of boring the reader with paperwork. She tells the reader what Melanie finds rather than allowing us to look over her shoulder and experience the thrill of finding it with her.

The next book in the Melanie Vargas series is due out in March 2006. With more careful writing and rewriting, Martinez’s series could rise to fulfill its promise. But I confess - even if it doesn’t, I just have to find out what happens between Melanie and Dan.