EXPOSURE

Anthony's 33rd novel (The Doll's House, 1992, etc.) of romantic suspense offers a brace of powerful megalomaniacs, nice and not-so-nice lovers, assorted killers, and good guys sleuthing a hairsbreadth ahead of predators—all of it involving a journalist's dig into a WW II atrocity. Top-flight reporter Julia Hamilton is offered a job with British news titan Lord Western to head his new feature, ``Exposure,'' the object of which is to fry politicos and celebs in scandalous oils. This is Western's move to undercut his old enemy, tycoon Harold King. But Western gets more than he bargained for. With the help of editor Ben Harris (with whom love is aborning after Julia dumps her tiresome live-in), Julia early on discovers that King, nÇ Hans Koenig, was spinning out untruths about his origins and about being a poor WW II Polish refugee rescued by a nice English spinster who died of cancer. The woman's niece, a gentle widow of 70, tells the true story...and pays. It's all entangled with a story of mass murder in the desert. Meanwhile, vibes from the sleuthing have reached King—and a worried Western- -while a ``ferret-faced'' minor politician tunes into the sexual proclivities of King's adored daughter. There's a web of plotting, action, and damage control while a career killer stalks, and Julia sets up King to self-destruct. As always, Anthony has assembled a satisfying clutch of nasties who close in at the author's pro pace. Reliable.