Lovers and Liars

A compelling blend of romance and suspense adds zest to this ingeniously plotted, complex yarn from British writer Beauman, author of the bestselling Destiny . In 1982, American schoolgirl Gini Hunter was drawn into a brief, passionate affair with French photojournalist Pascal Lamartine while visiting her father in war-torn Beirut. Twelve years later, the estranged lovers are reunited on a London News story about salacious doings of Kennedy-esque ambassador John Hawthorne and his posh, Lady Bountiful wife Lise. Meanwhile, four mysterious, identically wrapped packages have been delivered in New York, Paris, Venice and London: to Gini, Pascal, an imbibing gossip columnist and an Oxford-educated ex-commando. Following such disparate clues as marked passages from Paradise Lost , handcuffs and prostitutes' lingerie, Gini and Pascal uncover more than strange sexual proclivities: they find links to Hawthorne's ignominious actions in Vietnam and are drawn into the resulting tangle of deceit and revenge that culminates in graphic violence. So neatly does Beauman interweave patterns of truth and trickery that virtually nothing is known for certain until practically the last page. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo. (May)