September

Pilcher is one of the best current practitioners of literate commercial fiction. Here again she limns appealing characters with civilized manners who live in beautiful settings; she describes tastefully furnished rooms, magnificent gardens and elegant clothes in loving detail--but without the loud dropping of brand names. The story moves leisurely among large estates in the author's native Scotland, posh London digs and quaint village cottages. A lavish coming-out party for the daughter of one of the leading families of a town in the Scottish Highlands brings together characters whose lives change in various ways during the novel's four-month span. The Airds and the Balmerinos of Strathcroy and their friends and relatives in London, Majorca and the States are the focal point of the love affairs, domestic complications, estrangements, reconciliations and other gently momentous events. Though the tensions of the plot seem a bit contrived--the secrets of a glamorous woman returned to her childhood home too late to find peace, the circumstances of a bloody incident in Northern Ireland, the meddling of a mentally disturbed, malign woman--the novel will keep readers deeply involved. And those familiar with The Shell Seekers will be pleased to find one of its minor characters playing a major role here. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections. (May)