Nightmare

Epperson's second novel, Dumford Blood , was dubbed ``Kansas Gothic''--a term that also nicely describes her newest entry in the horror genre. Dr. Bryant Raleigh comes to a clinic in Flint Hills, Kans., to study and treat women with multiple personality disorders. His brother David, a journalist with a taste for the macabre, accompanies him to write a book about the project--and perhaps to begin to surmount the effects of his wife's suicide. The clinic, run by Dr. Russell Guerin, turns out to be a strange place indeed: Guerin's mysterious wife, confined to her room for years and grown disgustingly obese, rules over it as an unseen, frightening monarch; their hemophiliac son is a morose and brooding presence. Moreover, the patients are killing themselves one by one for no discernible reason. Epperson strains credulity by providing every character (except for the blue parrot who needs a daily dose of Oprah! ) with a secret trauma in his or her past and by introducing a weird, wildly gratuitous blood ritual as a plot element. As horror novels go, however, this is an intriguing and mesmerizing addition to the genre. ( Sept. )