Beauty

Dillen's somewhat subdued third novel (after Fool) centers on a company liquidator who goes the extra mile in attempting to rescue a harbor town factory from bankruptcy. At the age of 56, Carol "The Beast" MacLean aspires to run her own company, and her boss at the N.Y.C. offices of Baxter Blume has promised to help her. All she has to do is perform one more "corporate burial"%E2%80%94shuttering Elizabeth Seafood Products, based on Elizabeth Island, off the coast of Massachusetts, and selling its assets. Soon after arriving on the island, however, Carol discovers she will be laid off when she returns home. Her own blue-collar roots have long made her feel uneasy about her job, and she decides to acquire the ailing company and manage the factory's all-female workforce herself. She finds loyal allies in laidback HR chief Dave Parks, long-time finance officer Annette Novato, and local fisherman Ezekiel "Easy" Parsons, to whom Carol is unexpectedly attracted. It emerges that Elizabeth Foods' former owners were robbing it blind, and that pending government sanctions threaten to curb the fish catch on which the factory depends. Dillen creates an intriguing premise but doesn't make the most of its potential for suspense, preferring instead to offer a feel-good story with a dash of romance. Agent: Markus Hoffmann, Regal Literary Agency. (Mar.)