A Knight in Shining Armor

In her hardcover debut, Deveraux ( The Taming ) offers an imaginative romantic historical fantasy, whose virtue of unpredictabiity is undermined by plodding, graceless prose. Vacationing in England with her lover, Robert, and his spoiled teenage daughter, heroine Dougless Montgomery is abandoned by them in a remote country churchyard near the tomb of Nicholas Stafford, an earl who died in 1564. Almost immediately, an armor-clad swashbuckler materializes--Nicholas himself, reincarnated in the 20th century to clear his reputation, having been unjustly convicted of treason. Intrigued by his plight, Dougless agrees to help Nicholas learn his accuser's identity and restore his good name. They become lovers, and their adventures briefly lead Dougless back to the 1560s, allowing Deveraux to portray that period from a contemporary woman's perspective, as well as 1988 through the eyes of a confounded Elizabethan nobleman. Well-detailed historical highlights and a heartwarming conclusion will enhance the novel's commercial appeal to those Deveraux fans willing to lay out the extra cash for froth bound in hardcover. Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate. (Aug.)