The Turner Journals

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Paging through his wife's diary after her death from an aneurysm at age 32, hack writer Nick Turner is amazed to read of her many infidelities. He decides on vengeance, and a new serial killer is born. Because the murder methods he uses vary, the NYPD are slow to spot a pattern, but eventually the dogged and utterly unambitious Detective First-grade Dennis McQueen does take note, and the chase is on. Slight plotting, leisurely yet sustained pacing, McQueen's wily, unstudied charm and, for a good while, Turner's warped yet believable logic, all conspire to keep readers raptly turning pages. But the narrative begins to unravel as Nick goes from hack to bestseller, his list of victims dries up and his desire to kill becomes wrapped up in his desire to write. Leigh turns to graphic sexual imagery for a scene with a lusty book editor, rushes into a taut chase and sets up a frenzied bloodbath at a booksellers' convention. His final revelation concerning Mrs. Turner's lurid writings will surprise very few readers. This highly enjoyable story by a pseudonymous crime writer pulls up short just before the final stretch. (June)

Library Journal

Brooklyn police detective Dennis McQueen cares little for appearances. Tall, shaggy, and slightly overweight, Dennis heads a task force searching for a body builder-type serial killer who stalks, murders, and sexually mutilates each of the lovers mentioned in his dead wife's journals. The gore, graphic language, sex, and violence that accompany each murder will repel some but hypnotize most. Despite a few rough edges, this work offers enough suspense and vicarious horror for anyone.

George Needham

This tightly drawn, intriguingly plotted police procedural is written under the pseudonym of an established crime writer who may be embarking on a new series. The narrative alternates between the detectives investigating the case and the serial killer they are hunting. Nick Turner is a bereaved widower until he discovers his late wife's journals, in which she details her numerous affairs. Turner snaps, deciding that her many lovers had abused her and deserve to die. He makes it his mission to bring the lovers to bloody justice. A mystery writer, Turner finds that each killing fuels his writing, and as he sinks deeper into madness, his novels become best-sellers. Meanwhile, Detective Dennis McQueen, who has discovered a link in several seemingly unrelated murders, finds himself fighting the New York Police Department's bureaucracy, which loathes serial-killer cases because of the negative publicity and public panic they cause. The last sentence of this novel is an unbelievable stunner, the cherry on top of a rich confection of a novel.

Kirkus Reviews

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.