The Lap of Luxury

Moneyed Manhattanites, the most frequent targets of Hamilton's barbed cartoons in the New Yorker , also form the cast of his third novel, a mordantly funny portrayal of the war between the upwardly mobile and the already wealthy. When she meets talented, handsome artist Vincent Booth, Mary Brigham thinks she's discovered perfect husband material: he is sexy, caring and just bohemian enough to irritate her multimillionaire father. Best of all, Vincent doesn't care about her richesuntil they enter New York society as a couple. Growing restless in the museum job Mary has procured for him, Vincent begins an affair with Laura Montgomery, a chilly, amoral beauty, and discovers a way to make a fortune that isn't as foolproof as he thinks. While casting a sharp eye on the world of dinner parties, galas and illicit alliances, Hamilton offers thinly fictionalized, lightly venomous versions of certain networks, magazines, anchormen and museums that make for some entertaining guessing games. First serial to Cosmopolitan. (November)