Faces

Vogue staffer Lord ( One of My Very Best Friends ) offers thriller readers a Barnumesque mix of characters and incidents. In California, model Teri Shephard undergoes a ``face peel,'' hoping it will revive her failing career and marriage. The operation is monstrously disfiguring, though her family is never aware of the botched results since Terri is reported to have died in a car crash. While the news doesn't affect Teri's roving spouse, it devastates the couple's daughters, gor geous Alexa and Jo. They separate upon leaving home, but reunite later in Manhattan, where a tony magazine makes Alexa a sensation as a model. The sisters gradually learn secrets about the ``beauty'' business that arouse suspicions that their mother was murdered and they investigate, angering some nasty people. The plot thickens then indigestibly, the biggest lumps created by details on sadism, masochism and other perversions that would amaze researchers in pathological sex. While Lord provides authentic details of the fashion/beauty industry, her plot twists are simply beyond belief. (Mar.)