Hell Hath No Fury

Macdonald ( Honour and Obey ; An Innocent Woman ) offers little that's fresh in this flat tale of a poor but fiery young woman making her way by wits alone in late-19th-century Ireland. Daisy O'Lindon, snubbed by haughty Lady Lyndon-Fury in her request for employment, falls in love with Lady Lyndon-Fury's handsome son Napier and becomes pregnant. When he refuses to defy his family and forgo his inheritance to marry her, Daisy resolves to exact revenge. She weds her ambitious and kind third cousin Stephen O'Lindon; over the years the two make their way up in the small community of Simonstown, gradually buying the possessions of the steadily self-destructing Lyndon-Furys. At the center of the turmoil between the two families are the Lyndon-Furys' ancient Coolderg Castle, in local lore stolen long ago from O'Lindons, and Daisy and Napier's daughter Caroline. Macdonald's characters fail to become credible, their actions are inconsistent and often unappealing (Daisy indignantly points out a competitor's crippled leg and plain face in her early suit for a job), and the prose is perfunctory. (Mar.)