Rightfully Mine

Child abuse, a Nazi collaborator, diamond smugglers, to-the-death rivalries and lost antique tapestries are a few of the ingredients Mortman ( First Born and Circles ) packs into this high-gloss novel. Readers able to suspend belief through innumerable baroque plot twists will relish heroine Gaby Cocroft. A 38-year-old Ohio housewife cast off by her husband, she makes a duckling-to-swan metamorphosis and plunges into New York society. As the soignee, apparently wealthy Mme. Gabrielle Didier, she lands a job at Castleton's, a venerable auction house locked in grim combat with the House of Lafitte, which also deals in expensive antiques. Abetted by Armand Lafitte and a plain-speaking, filthy-rich female friend, Gaby takes New York by storm. Men swoon at her feet and women clients pack her off to London with dizzying sums to toss at antique dealers. Maximillian Richard, the swain who piques her interest, is a mystery man who sweeps her away to Europe one week and ignores her the next. Mortman overwrites shamelessly, but the fevered plotting and colorful cast add up to a fairly satisfying potboiler. 150,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; author tour. (July)