THE MYSTERY OF THE CHINATOWN PEARLS

This evanescent mystery, no deeper than the make-up Marcey Adams learns to apply when first met, going to a House of Charm in her native San Francisco, has other points of interest: a little about her last year at high school; her dieting and re-styling from size 16 to 12; her dates with coastguardsman Steve Fletcher; and her (young) aunt's romance with David Manning, of the FBI. This is convenient since someone drops a string of pearls in Marcey's handbag (actually she has a look-alike) which eventually ties in with a heroin traffic on which David will close down...A slenderized story with a conversational burble -- that's about all.