INCA GOLD

Patricia Peters, 27, a fashion buyer from Seattle, agrees to chaperone her 14-year-old niece Mary Ann on a trip to Peru--since both of Mary Ann's divorced parents are too busy with their shabby sex lives to care about their daughter. But the trip is marred by strange mishaps (attempted robberies, a mugging of Mary Ann, etc.), which start soon after Mary Ann buys a gorgeous $40 bracelet in a Lima gift-shop. From there on, of course, most readers can virtually write this one themselves: yes, the bracelet turns out to be a precious Inca relic--sold by mistake to Mary Ann instead of a smuggler. Likewise, tall, dark, and handsome Adam Mendoza--whose kisses are ""soaring, shaking, earth-moving""--turns out to be a sleuth, not (as narrator Pat fears) a villain. And he'll eventually help to rescue Pat and Mary Ann from the clutches of the real smuggler-villain, who's traveling in the usual American-tourist disguise. Strictly by the numbers, start to finish, but not without a certain sappy, old-fashioned likability--and lots of sightseeing snippets (Cuzco, Machu Picchu) from Peru.