THE TURNER JOURNALS

January, 1990: Nicholas Turner, Brooklyn-based writer of paperback originals, grieves over the sudden death of his 32-year- old wife Gina. How can he live, let alone continue to write, without her? Jump-cut to January 1993. Detective First-Grade Dennis McQueen, a failure as husband and father, catches a stomach-turner: Brooklyn plumber Paul Medco, who's been plumbing the neighborhood ladies, teenaged and otherwise, is found dead, his genitals ``ripped away.'' When two women also turn up dead, their genitals similarly ``scooped'' out, McQueen suspects a serial-murder connection. His research turns up six possibly related cases. Unambitious personally but wanting the killer off the streets, McQueen shares his suspicions with the very ambitious Captain William Keepsake. When they consult with the Chief of Detectives, he assigns the pair to a task force to investigate, promoting McQueen to Sergeant. Flashback to 1990 and the grieving Turner, who discovers his wife's secret journals. His grief turns to enraged horror as he reads her second-rate porn prose about dozens of sexual encounters with men, women, and teenagers. From here on, this latest from the pseudonymous Leigh turns into a B-minus scenario, with Turner, now the author of a series of hardback bestsellers, on an inevitable collision course with Dennis McQueen. . . . Flatly written, with a preposterous premise.