Twas the Night Before: A Christmas Allegory

A renewed belief in Santa Claus seals the love between two journalists whose engagement is threatened by lack of faith, in Jenkins's (Nicolae) preposterous holiday romance set in snowy Chicago. Tom Douten and Noella Wright are an unlikely oil-and-water match but very much in love. As ""Douten Thomas,"" Tom is the Tribune's locally heralded, cynical columnist and champion of the working class; Noella is a well-bred ivory tower professor of journalism who still believes in Santa Claus. The provenance of a cherished platinum heart pendant bearing the wrong birth date that Noella received as a child and wears every December threatens to estrange the happy couple. Jenkins bides time by detailing the characters' compatibility (""It had not been love at first sight despite Noella's delicate beauty"") and then rushes to resolve the belatedly established conflict in a most implausible scenario involving a plane crash in Germany in which Tom chances upon the real Kris Kringle. The narrative is both too cloying and too superficial to inspire belief. Author tour. (Oct.)