Dust Devil

Romance veteran Brandewyne (Upon a Moon-Dark Moor) shows her literary age. Her macho hero, Renzo Cassavettes, smokes Marlboros, drinks Scotch, and backhands his woman when she hurts him real bad. No matter how battered he may be, when Renzo gets into a car, he's always the one in the driver's seat. A James Dean clone, Renzo was forced to flee his Midwestern home when a boyhood rival was killed. Twelve years later, he returns with a red Jag and a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting and seeks out his childhood soul mate, Sarah Kincaid, who bore his illegitimate son and hasn't had sex since. Even as she encounters hot-blooded passion, Mafiosi and chemical polluters, Sarah's a soggy noodle around Renzo and just a little dated. (Mar.)