Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991 TAG: 9102060056
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO BOOK PAGE EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
OFFICIAL SECRETS. By Lindsey Mitchell. Warner Books. $4.95 (paper).
These two novels are unusually, almost unbelievably similar. Both are well-crafted, enjoyable potboilers; both are about the newspaper business; both were written by couples. And one of the books, "Official Secrets," is homegrown. Lindsey Mitchell is the pseudonym of Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska, who live near Fancy Gap.
"Jewels of Our Father" is your basic multigenerational saga. The novel follows the rules of the form. The story of the Bryant family's newspaper empire begins in 1925 and covers most of the century. The ambitious patriarch, Adam Bryant, works and marries his way up in the business, beginning at the San Francisco Times.
Most of the novel concerns the vicious infighting among his children. It's the smart, beautiful and nervy daughter Kellen vs. her oily, scheming half brother Ian who makes J.R. Ewing look like Pee Wee Herman.
The action is fast-paced throughout. For example, on Page 99 the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and World War II ends on Page 110. This kind of novel always has a certain base in reality, and here it appears to be a zesty blend of the Hearst family and the Binghams of Louisville.
"Official Secrets" is more tightly focused on Washington sex scandals. Is it possible that the front-running Democratic presidential candidate, the charismatic Sen. Ben Fincastle, is having an affair with Colette Daniels, the gossip columnist of the Washington Tribune? Will intrepid young reporter Sylvia Loring crack the story of a Mayflower-Madamism prostitution ring, or will her evil, jealous editor, Hale Gardiner, take it away from her? And what about Sylvia's first love, the handsome, broad-shouldered Max Ridgway?
The tricky plot is filled with reversals and surprises. The authors have done their homework, getting the physical details of Washington, Charlottesville and the Virginia horse country right. If the characters are stereotypes, that familiarity is part of the point with this kind of escapism.
Both "Jewels of Our Father" and "Official Secrets" are literary popcorn, but they're good literary popcorn; just the thing for a cold winter afternoon.
by CNB