Garden of Lies

In this formulaic but engaging novel by the author of Garden of Lies , characters come in pairs. In Hollywood in the 1950s, jealous Dolly betrays her famous movie star sister, Eve, to the McCarthyite witch-hunters--then suffers everlasting guilt as Eve drinks her way to death, leaving two young daughters: plucky, resourceful Annie and sensitive Laurel. These sisters also find their mutual devotion tested when they fall in love with the same man. By this time, they have fled California for New York, where their aunt Dolly has a successful gourmet chocolate shop (and a French lover who cannot leave his wife because he runs her father's renowned chocolate store in Paris). Ambitious Annie decides to become a chocolatier, too, training in Paris, then opening her own shop, while self-effacing Laurel becomes an artist/illustrator and has a child out of wedlock. Meanwhile, Laurel's ne'er-do-well father has a sibling, too--a repulsive man who tracks down his niece and interferes in her life. As befits the genre, the plot is replete with complications, misunderstandings, secrets, mistaken decisions and broken hearts. Goudge should increase her readership with this smoothly written romance. 200,00 first printing; $200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club dual main selections; author tour . (Jan.)