cover image Pearls

Pearls

Celia Brayfield. William Morrow & Company, $18.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-06211-8

Lord James Bourton's suicide leaves his family up to their ears in debt and surrounded by whispers of a scandal that began years before with a woman he betrayed in the jungles of Malaya. Numbed by his death, Cathy Bourton tries to recoup her loss by marrying ""well,'' but the womanizing aristocrat she chooses makes her life a misery until their divorce leaves her free to reap a fortune in London's financial district. Her sister Monty finds fame singing with a gritty rock group, but when success sours with those brawling skirtchasers, she sinks quickly into drugs and degradation before rising from the ashes to develop a hot new act. A sprawling, poorly controlled plot makes a good portion of this lengthy saga hard going. So much uninspired, frenetic activity is packed into these pages that Brayfield's memorable descriptions of the English colony in Malaya during the 1940s are buried and the excitement of the moment when past and present merge is diminished. 100,000 printing; $175,000 ad/promo. (July 20)