The Diamond Lane

Reluctantly back home in L.A. after 16 years in Africa, documentary filmmaker Mouse FitzHenry longs for the harsh, teeming jungle life her dark lens took in so lovingly. Wrenched stateside by a family emergency, with her longtime boyfriend/collaborator in tow, Mouse is instantly beleaguered by a past she'd leapt continents to escape and a present she can only face armed by reels of celluloid. In this rollicking second novel, Karbo ( Trespassers Welcome Here ) reveals familiar subjects--the phony glitz of Hollywood, the fairy-tale lure of love and marriage--with precision, compassion and humor as if we are seeing them for the very first time. Mouse's paramour Tony, a Brit who calls her ``poppet,'' adores L.A. and all that it can do for him and for his screenplay, Love Among the Elephants . ``Based on a true story'' about their courtship in Africa, the script has been given the go-ahead by a producer who insists on dubbing it Love Among Gorillas. Mouse, meanwhile, caving in to maternal pressure, agrees to marry Tony and then proceeds, with the help of an old flame, to film around her unwitting fiance a documentary on the entire process of their betrothal called Wedding March. A flawless, page-turning story emerges as Mouse and Tony manage--often with hilarious subterfuge--to keep their projects secret from one another. With its laugh-aloud moments and a cast of brilliantly drawn characters, this is a tale to treasure. (May)