Sweeter Than Sin

Orwig's tale centers on Alette Lachman, a talented landscape architect who becomes caught in a trap woven by her own conniving family. Arrogant, autocratic California businessman Rutger Lachman demands success from life, so he's not amused when he loses the race for governor to Sal Giavotella. Nor does it help that his opponent was backed by Jeff O'Neil, son of a business associate with whom Lachman had an ugly falling out. But his daughter Cheramie Walcott, wife of a senator, sees an affair with Sal as a satisfying way to turn the tables on her philandering husband while staging a private rebellion against her father's interfering ways. Yet it's Alette whom the police find in Sal's townhouse when Sal turns up dead of a bullet wound. Orwig ( Favors of the Rich ) enlivens the standard romance plot with her web of political and business alliances, her appealing characters adding some interest to an otherwise obvious murder mystery. Initially, Jeff is determined to see Alette pay for Sal's death, but as their relationship moves from open hostility to uneasy friendship, Jeff suspects there can be more to a case than meets the D.A.'s eye. More than five million copies of Orwig's 35 novels are in print. (Mar.)