Small Town Girls

Academy Award-winning screenwriter ( Witness ) Wallace concocts a consummately slick if slightly unbelievable tale about four women friends, all nearing 40, who learn the true meaning of success in the Having It All era. Kate, Shelly and Valerie have struck it big; they have left behind their small California town for glamorous careers (Kate's screenplay wins an Oscar, Shelly runs a cosmetics company, Valerie is a broadcast journalist). Each receives an urgent summons from their old friend and leader, Barbara, who, despite her classic combination of beauty, brains and privilege, has never escaped claustrophobic Visalia. Rushing to her side, the three find themselves reunited in a hospital waiting room: Barbara has attempted suicide. As they try to determine Barbara's motives, they each calculate the terrible cost of their fame and fortune--and their complicity in a fatal deed of 20 years ago that may have ruined Barbara's life. The steady revelation of closely guarded secrets keeps this potboiler simmering. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club alternates; TV rights to Grosbart/Barnett Productions. (Oct.)