TROUBLE FOR LUCIA

Lucia has her court of worshippers -- and there has been too long a gap without another Lucia, so this will be good news. She continues her absorbing struggle to be First Lady of Tilling, in spite of the combined efforts of Elizabeth Mapp, Flint, Diva, Susan, Irene and Evie. She becomes Mayor, she inaugurates cycling as a fashionable sport, she entertains an opera singer, she is constantly on her toes to maintain her supremacy. The petty viciousness of the small, intimate group is hidden by an all too unruffled social surface, and presented in quietly amusing fashion.