KILGAREN

Gothic romance with a difference (insurgent activity on a Caribbean island -- also a pet pooch attracting more attention than the native horticulture) when Barbara, after more than ten years returns to Kilgaren Island and Castle -- the family holding where there had been a terrible fire leaving her with a (not too badly) scarred face. There she sees again her brother Jonathan (""almost too brown for comfort"") but these thoughts of blue and black blood recede after she falls in love with him and of course he proves not to be her real brother and his tint of the tarbrush will be of ""real advantage"" to the ""future of the island."" Miss Holland and Barbara staunchly rise above the remarks re ""colored people"" (which this readership may not notice) and as for the story itself, it transcends the formula and is more easily read than many.