Star Flight

The latest in a long line of highly successful romances by veteran author Whitney ( The Ebony Swan , etc.) is a lightweight piece of fluff guaranteed to strain the credulity of her most diehard fans. Events are set in motion when Lauren Castle travels from her California home to the rugged resort of Lake Lure, N.C., as a result of an anonymous letter suggesting that her husband's death some two years earlier was not an accident. It seems that Jim Castle had learned something about the long-ago suicide of beautiful film star Victoria Frazer, who drowned herself in Lake Lure and who just happens to be Lauren's grandmother--a fact known only to Jim and his old friend Gordon Heath, the man Lauren has come to realize too late is her real love. Spaceships, UFOs and government cover-ups all come to light in Lauren's investigation, which is endangered by threats on her life. The bizarre climax fails to resolve a plethora of subplots, making this one-dimensional effort as unsatisfying as it is improbable. Only Whitney's atmospheric evocation of the rugged setting has anything to recommend it. (Sept.)