A HAMPTONS CHRISTMAS

Brady, aside from his recent bitter, despairing novel, The Marines of Autumn (p. 493), feeds off glitterati in the Hamptons (The House That Ate the Hamptons, 1999). Here, who should pop up but divorced Dick and Nicole Driver (the Trumps?), Martha Stewart, George Plimpton, Patricia Duff, Ron Perelman, and those little Christmas elves, the Spielberg kids. Leads are Brady's usual world-weary journalist Beecher Stowe IV, his father the Admiral, and Beecher’s beloved sexy mistress, Lady Alix Dunraven. The Drivers’ gadabout ten-year-old daughter hops a Concorde from France in search of an ideal Hampton Christmas as Martha Stewart’s unexpected guest. A tale-spinner, her story is that her parents fell when a Peruvian bridge crashed onto jagged rocks. How is she tied to the Hamptons’ late, infamous Jacob Marley, who made her an heiress with Microsoft stocks? What's her real story and real name? Will Beecher, the Admiral, and Alix solve the mystery? Upgraded Nancy Drew, faintly tart under a huge topping of meringue, just the dish for Brady’s fans.