Mindscream

As this predictable medical thriller unfolds, we learn that an unscrupulous doctor in Wisconsin needs a steady supply of corpses to ensure an adequate supply of his cure for Alzheimer's disease. Like Dr. Dundeen and Morton the mortician, who supplies the bodies, Nina Trenton's father has an early-onset version of the disease. Nina has more bad luck when her husband ostensibly drops dead while jogging. Nina suspects foul play, as does friendly reporter Bruce Fitzgerald, but in the end, Nina and her infant daughter are left alone to confront the murderous doctor. Zimmerman manages to weave both Down's syndrome and voodoo into the denouement, but these twists are absurd, and like the yarn itself, distasteful. (June)