Treasures

Glitter, sensuality and treachery abound in Kingsley's hardcover debut after Scents and Faces . It's a slickly romantic page-turner centering on a sumptuous cache of jewels, the stolen inheritance of lovely Pietra (``Pete'') d'Angeli. Growing up poor in a New York immigrant family of gem-cutters, Pete learns how her grandmother, the fabled Italian courtesan La Colomba, amassed treasures and smuggled them to a Swiss vault in 1938, expecting them to be retrieved by sons Stefano and Vittorio. But Vittorio, a Fascist, filches both shares. Pete's girlhood is further darkened by mother Bettina's bouts of insanity, the result of her childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland. Pete's talent as a jewelry designer earns her awards and a lavish lifestyle, enabling her to care for her mother and to jet breathlessly from Paris to Tokyo to Thailand in quest of clues to the jewels, meanwhile enjoying erotic aventures. She also has to reckon with strong, sexy, principled Luke, the Vietnam vet, inventor and flier whom she really loves, when he balks at her work--fashioning baubles for the wealthy few. Kingsley builds an intricate plot spiced with hedonistic fantasies and the luxurious lore of gems. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates. (July)