MIDNIGHT LACE

Completely unpredictable is MacKinlay Kantor. Here's a story, period and regional in flavor (1911- small town Iowa) -- with the protagonist a girl on the make, out of a shady Chicago background, who decides to cut her losses, pose as an innocent good girl, with an illusively fragrant background, and find herself security for the future, which will combine with a bit of gold digging and a position in the community. How she sets about it- how she creates the imaginary background- how she does her gold digging on the one hand and gets herself the town's best bachelor on the other- makes for entertaining reading, fashioned with embellishments of region and period lares and penates. Ben Steele, proprietor of a livery stable and upstanding citizen, wins out and brings to the fore the best that is in her. But in the processes she tries out a few of her high hat city ideas, she falls foul of nefarious plotting of the local political boss, she abandons some goals -- and tells the truth at last. Serialized in Woman's Home Companion. Sheer entertainment value. Good rentals- substantial sales.