Yellow

In his sixth novel, Lynch ( Deathly Pale ) interweaves the reminiscences of Hearst newspaperman Ambrose Bierce, lying near death in a Mexican hut in 1914, with a tale told to the journalist by a ``fellow Hearstling,'' artist Frederic Remington, in 1909. The main story concerns Remington's adventures with legendary reporter Richard Harding Davis, on assignment in Cuba before and during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The action-packed plot, which climaxes with the pair's rescue of Cuban revolutionary Evangelina Cosio y Cisneros (a historical event), is enriched by a behind-the-scenes look at the operations of the ``yellow'' press and the rivalry between the Hearst and Pulitzer newspapers in New York City. Lynch does a fine job of keeping fiction and history distinct yet making them complement each other; his narrative vividly evokes the robust tenor of life in an age when America's emergence as a world power often made its press arrogant and mendacious. His strong characterizations capture the world-weariness of men who have seen the truth swamped by a great wave of misinformation. ( Dec. )