Lone Hand

WALLS OF GLASS--Larry Barretto--Little, Brown ($2). Sophy La Roque, whose voice is "magical and full, a faint huskiness about it like the undertones of pigeons at nightfall," cuts adrift from her aristocratic Southern traditions to marry a young doctor of the North. An overturned carriage, and she faces poverty with an infant son. Driven to the wall, she permits Martin Greer, hard turfman, to install her as mistress in his mansion. Retaining her dignity and authority before Sportsman Greer and the world of Valesboro, she centres her otherwise thwarted hopes upon her son, plays a lone hand with courage. Not a brilliant piece of work, indeed often downright trite, the book's best recommendation is its publishers' confidence that the public will be pleased.