BLOODSTREAM

As wealthy developer Bob Rueger wrestles with his not-so- wealthy neighbors over his attempt to re-create his stern, religious visionary great-great-grandfather's dream of an Indiana utopia, a couple of local boys find some human bones on the bank of the White River. They're a hundred years too old to be the bones of missing Johnny Donato, but they portend both Deputy Marty Hopkins's discovery of Johnny's corpse in the river and the enduring grip of demons from the past. Though it may seem obvious from the beginning that Johnny was killed by a crazy wild man known only as Tor, veteran Carlson is determined to weave present-day mystery with sinister history. Despite a promisingly haunted cast, Marty's second case (Gravestone, 1993) is as strained and sluggish as it is heartfelt. The evil is real enough, but not the disguise it takes this time.