Blind Trust

Having written paperback romances as Jude O'Neill, Bamford launches a romance line for M. Evans with this diverting historical confection set among the famed 400 of late 1880s New York society. Wed to Claude Statton, a cold, conniving devil patterned on Jay Gould, sweet, plucky Darcy is a prisoner in her Fifth Avenue manse. Claude rifles her correspondence, torments her sexually and declares her slightest rebellion a nervous condition to be treated by drugs or, perhaps, radical surgery. But Claude can't keep her from seditious freethinker Columbine Nash, the mistress of a member of Darcy's set, nor from the brawnier charms of Tavish Finn, a handsome Irishman who has a score to settle with Darcy's husband. This is typical romance fare: the hero charges about, telling no one the whole truth, and the heroine grows faint when he moves into view. Yet Bamford embroiders nicely, vivifying the blizzard of '88, weaving through bawdy houses and high society, and adding a thread of deadly suspense. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection. (Apr.)