There's something funny going on in Eternity. The town is the kind of mountain resort we all want to visit when we get away from it all. But there's something really funny going on, and Tamara Thorne's going to tell you all about it.

Just sit back and let her guide you to the local stone circle, a mini-Stonehenge said to possess supernatural powers. Feel light-headed? You're not alone. The circle makes people dizzy, but does it also make them crazy? At first glance, yup!

There's a local loony-bin, for one. There are UFO sightings and crystal-worshiping New Agers, not to mention the tall-tale-tellin' townsfolk - like the mayor, who lets on that he might be Ambrose Bierce. There's a dead ringer for Amelia Earhart. And Elvis One and Elvis Two, one of whom just might not be an impersonator. What about Jim Morrison, still sexy and apparently not dead?

But if the stone circle promotes eccentricity, it's done a doozy of a job on a certain someone - Eternity has had more murders in its history than you can shake an ice pick at. Tourists and the last two sheriffs all fell victim to the same killer, and the town council has covered up the crimes. Until now, for they've hired ex-Los Angeles cop Zach Tully, and he won't stand for their weird shenanigans. Or will he? By the time Tully arrives, the killer's added to the body count - and he's started leaving notes signed as "Jacky." With all those famous dead and missing people walking around, why not Jack the Ripper?

Tully has no choice but to jump right in - besides the newest murders, it turns out that Jacky is terrorizing Kate McPherson, the tour guide who found the last sheriff's mutilated body, and her young son. Tully's escape from LA stems from his inability to catch another serial killer, the Backdoor Man, who murdered his wife and child. Tully needs to catch this killer now, if not for his own sanity, then for Kate and Josh - who just might be the people he most needs in his life.

But in a town filled with eccentrics and downright weirdos, who stands out as the killing type? And why is each murder so different from the others? Is it really Jack the Ripper, or an obsessed fan of the 19th Century murderer - and does it really matter, as long as bodies continue to turn up? Tully must set aside his hatred of the press and accept the help of a beautiful TV reporter, Arlene Rios, whose theories make the straight-arrow lawman blush with embarrassment.

Peopled with bizarre characters drawn in broad yet sympathetic strokes, Eternity zings with humor and horror as Jacky taunts Tully and his deputies with each new murder. Tamara Thorne ably invades "Twin Peaks" territory with a melting pot of eccentrics even David Lynch would be hard-pressed to top. Sheriff Tully's race against the madman is an engrossing, rollicking "Scream"-like romp that leaps out of the gate and never stops accelerating until it hits its climactic confrontation on a storm-swept mountaintop, within sight of the eerie stone circle.

Equal parts chills and chuckles, gore and giggles, ETERNITY will have you gasping in all the right places - and staying up well past your bedtime - thanks to its breakneck pace. It's another winner from Thorne (MOONFALL, HAUNTED).