Well-Mannered Assasin

This stilted first novel by former OSS agent Romanones ( The Spy Wore Silk ) is a transparently veiled account of what the author claims were her real-life adventures with legendary international assassin Carlos the Jackal. Laden with luminaries (Ava Gardner, the Duchess of Windsor, General Norman Schwarzkopf) who have little or nothing to do with the central plot, the tale, set mostly in the late '70s and featuring Aline as its narrator and heroine, moves from one jet-set home or event to another. Despite the objections of her often duped but invariably tolerant husband, Aline agrees to help her former ``spymaster,'' John Derby, to keep materials and designs for the manufacture of nuclear weapons from falling into terrorist hands, and soon she's teaming up with a former KGB agent to save the world for democracy. Carlos, depicted as utterly charming and courtly except for his unfortunate penchant for homicide, shows up often, even saving Aline's life while she's helping to rescue a friend from an evil husband. Guns rigged to backfire, arms deals and murders punch up the action as Aline spies just as hard as she can. But in spite of some essential plot twists, Aline leaches her narrative of excitement by broadly forecasting many events and by stuffing it with trivia (the type of tobacco in Carlos's cigarettes; the makeup routine of Libya's Khadafy). For all of the author's apparent ambitions, Aline the fictional spy is no Jane Bond--and Aline the writer is no Ian Fleming. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. (May)