Yours Truly, from Hell

Doman provided the research, as well as a mishmash of incongruent details, for Smith's (The Thief Who Came to Dinner absurd novel about Jack the Ripper. A psychic, retired American brigadier general, Jim Lees flies with his wife to London in 1988, the 100th anniversary of the unknown killer's onslaught of crime. Although Jim hates to use his supernatural powers, he tells Sir Malcolm Stuart of Scotland Yard about dreams in which a modern ghoul copies the Victorian Jack. Meanwhile, the baffled police are investigating the mutilation-murder of a prostitute. As the crimes continue, rowdy gangs resurrected from the 19th century terrorize Londoners. Hyped up with artificial sensationalism, the story is implausible at best, and the denouement may set a record for nonsensical inventions. (August 17)