A Flash of Diamonds

Set in Geneva and Paris, this pedestrian, conventional romance portrays two heroines, one a Boston Brahmin, one from the wrong side of the tracks, and both equally, secretly damaged. Cynthia Kendall Colbert, born into a prominent Boston family, is married to a handsome Swiss banker and lives outside Geneva in a vast chaateau, the proverbial bird in a gilded cage. Ilsa Keller, daughter of a shoemaker, makes her way out of the Midwest, weds a Mafia boss and shortly afterward becomes a wealthy widow. Ilsa is a voluptuary who satisfies her sexual hunger with whomever takes her fancy or can advance her career. She leads a hedonistic life as a successful painter in Paris, while stylish, elegant Cynthia, dutiful wife of a compulsive womanizer, languishes in her castle. Eventually, although the two women never meet, their lives intersect. McNair ( Red Roses, White Lies ) begins the novel by focusing on Cynthia, and when that doughty blueblood's stiff upper lip numbs the reader's attention, switches to Ilsa's trampiness. The protracted plot continues to alternate between heroines as it moves to its predictable end. (Apr.)