Swing Sisters

In this hefty, prosaic saga, the obstacles facing an all-girl ensemble struggling to make it during the Big Band era are reduced to background music. As the band travels from New York City nightclubs to Hollywood stage sets, the real focus is the soap opera that constitutes the musicians' personal lives. Westin, whose first novel, Love and Glory , is in production as a TV movie, knows how to whip up a froth of heartbreak and despair. Horn-blower Tonia LaRobideaux wrestles with twin addictions: heroin and a man she can never marry. Drummer Roz Payne longs for piano-player Sara Sandler, who is shattered by a painful divorce. Fleeing from the memory of her baby's death, honey-haired songstress Lovey Anderson ascends fom smoky-dive diva to silver-screen goddess. But a romantic interlude with mobster Lucky Ross threatens her happiness and the band's future. The musicians' highs and lows keep the reader's attention but a subplot involving Ross and Lovey's radio-evangelist husband bogs down and confuses. Westin hits a sour note with the novel's pat and implausible resolution. (June)