SHAMELESS

Bestselling romancer Blake's (Arrow to the Heart, 1993, etc.) latest pash-and-prowl novel offers a mild mystery, action, and, of course, the requisite twangs of ``sensuality incarnate.'' Here, again in a Louisiana setting, a young unhappily married woman and an ex-CIA man (with eyes the color of ``fresh-mined turquoise,'' no mere mole he) trade insults and make love amid a murder, a disappearance, missing records, and a row about ownership of the town's mill. Camilla Greenley Hutton is pushing through a divorce from greedy, philandering husband Keith—who with his brother Gordon is one of the partners in the town's paper mill, inherited by senior partner Reid Sayers, who's returned from a career in covert operations. Reid is mulling over plans to sell the mill to a Swedish conglomerate. Camilla's first meeting with Reid since their teenage years takes place after she has shot out Keith's (auto) headlights, been pursued, and fled to the woods- -where there is Reid (thighs and biceps doing their ``warm masculine'' stuff). There are sparks, but Camilla soon begins to organize an environmentally minded group to spare the woods and an endangered woodpecker. It seems that Keith is desperate to hold onto the marriage—and gobs of money—when the ownership of the mill is brought into doubt. There's a shocking murder; a young woman who knew of old records concerning the title to the mill vanishes; someone is prowling after Camilla; and Reid, haunted by the memory of a tragic, violent act while he was on duty in Israel, flashes a knife—and makes a deadly, dumb mistake. It all ends with the usual narrow escape and heroics. An adequate mystery with a pro twist or two and journeyman lovemaking at reliable intervals. Sure-fire for the large following. (Literary Guild alternate selection)