Heroes and Lovers

Turn-of-the-century suffragettes and polar explorers collide with modern-day tabloid TV in Kavaler's second novel (after The Secret Lives of the Edmonts), a suspenseful tale of love, valor and adventure. Ensconced in her family's NYC mansion, 27-year-old Beatrix Tremaine guards the heroic past of her great-grandfather Byron Tremaine, who, in 1915, supposedly led the first successful expedition to the Antarctic. When Steven Avery, the host of a TV expose show, approaches Beatrix about including her great-grandfather in a program about sham expeditions, Beatrix calls on her older, married lover (himself a retired explorer and descendent of Byron's best friend) to disprove Avery's suspicions. A parallel narrative set in 1900s London centers on Viola Lambert, a brilliant young suffragette who (unbeknownst to history) was Byron Tremaine's lover, the true source of his archeological findings and the key to a dark secret that could tarnish the Tremaine legend. By comparison, gullible Beatrix's battle to protect Byron's memory, while she ardently denies her attraction to Avery, lacks vitality. While Kavaler's narrative never rises above formulaic romance, the historical tale it encapsulates proves rousing. Miniseries rights to Laurel Entertainments. (Mar.)