Boyne's Lassie

Tory Boyne, the dubious heroine of this slight novel, is the daughter of renowned, recently deceased painter Seamus Boyne (hero of Wimmer's Irish Wine). When she travels to Ireland from the U.S. for his funeral, she discovers that Boyne has faked his own death in the interests of continuing his hedonistic lifestyle free from the trammels of fame. The libertine painter is out of luck, however, for Tory is soon kidnapped and held for ransom, and it's up to Boyne to save her. This involves a most unlikely chain of events, which brings father and daughter to a castle where Boyne's wife, estranged from him for nearly 20 years, appears to rekindle her affections--the last and perhaps least credible twist in this energetic romp. Boyne is a sexist boor whose clearly lecherous attitude towards his daughter waivers between incest and exploitation (he wants her as his artist's model). Helping the unattractive Boyne to mar the novel are geographical inaccuracies and appalling stage-Irish dialogue. Wimmer even gets the currency wrong. In this case hardly the soul of wit, brevity's the sole attraction of this helter-skelter farce. (July)