Blood Red Rose

Grant (Inherit the Sun packs this tale with enough romance and passion, revenge and bloodshed, separations and reunions, to satisfy anyone drawn to novels that wear the tag ""epic.'' If predictable and not always credible, this saga surely has dramain epic proportions. In 1926, Kate Richmond, raised in China by American missionary parents, returns to Shanghai from the U.S., where she has graduated from medical school. She loses her heart to smooth Tom Blake, a Yankee gun-runner for the Communists. As a result of a complex string of events, Kate escapes with Shen Sun Lung, leader of the Communist revolutionaries, when the Nationalist government tries to crush their movement. Convinced that Blake has betrayed the Communists, Kate falls in love with Shen, and from 1927 to 1935 travels across China with him, fighting the enemy. In the late '40s, as the sun sets on this elaborate story, Mao proclaims the People's Republic of China, and Kate leaves Shen to join Blake in Hong Kong. 35,000 first printing; 30,000 ad/promo; to be an ABC-TV miniseries. (April 3)