Portraits

An overabundance of detail slows this already leisurely paced turn-of-the-century romance. When Wyatt Holloway returns to Eternity, Colo. to find buried gold, his search is interrupted by an entanglement with a female photographer. Leah Kirkland is a widow with two children whose love for photography and attraction for Wyatt poses a serious problem, since Wyatt's criminal background returns to haunt him when his picture is taken. As their mutual attraction subsides into a sedate courtship, a past secret that links Wyatt and Leah threatens to derail the story and their romance. The love is finally consummated only after a dulling parade of secondary characters, details about early 20th-century inventions, flashbacks and lumbering prose, making readers feel they've spent an eternity in Eternity. (Sept.)